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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) [I.xi.i] Grounds of the Suspicion that the Value of Silver still continues to decrease - Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 2a An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 1
[I.xi.i] Grounds of the Suspicion that the Value of Silver still continues to decrease - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 2a An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 1 [1776]Edition used:An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. I ed. R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner, vol. II of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1981).
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- Preface
- Key to Abbreviations and References
- General Introduction
- The Text and Apparatus
- Advertisement a
- Advertisement to the Fourth Edition
- Introduction and Plan of the Work
- [i] Book I: Of the Causes of Improvement In the Productive Powers of Labour, and of the Order According to Which Its Produce Is Naturally Distributed Among the Different Ranks of the People
- [i.i] Chapter I: Of the Division of Labour
- [i.ii] Chapter II: Of the Principle Which Gives Occasion to the Division of Labour
- [i.iii] Chapter III: That the Division of Labour Is Limited By the Extent of the Market 1
- [i.iv] Chapter IV: Of the Origin and Use of Money 1
- [i.v] Chapter V: Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities, Or of Their Price In Labour, and Their Price In Money
- [i.vi] Chapter VI: Of the Component Parts of the Price of Commodities
- [i.vii] Chapter VII: Of the Natural and Market Price of Commodities 1
- [i.viii] Chapter VIII: Of the Wages of Labour
- [i.ix] Chapter IX: Of the Profits of Stock
- [i.x.a] Chapter X: Of Wages and Profit In the Different Employments of Labour and Stock
- [i.x.b] Part I: Inequalities Arising From the Nature of the Employments Themselves
- [i.x.c] Part II: Inequalities Occasioned By the Policy of Europe
- [i.xi.a] Chapter XI: Of the Rent of Land
- [i.xi.b] Part I: Of the Produce of Land Which Always Affords Rent
- [i.xi.c] Part II: Of the Produce of Land Which Sometimes Does, and Sometimes Does Not, Afford Rent
- [i.xi.d] Part III: Of the Variations In the Proportion Between the Respective Values of That Sort of Produce Which Always Affords Rent, and of That Which Sometimes Does, and Sometimes Does Not, Afford Rent
- Digression Concerning the Variations In the Value of Silver During the Course of the Four Last Centuries
- [i.xi.e] First Period
- [i.xi.f] Second Period
- [i.xi.g] Third Period
- [i.xi.h] Variations In the Proportion Between the Respective Values of Gold and Silver
- [i.xi.i] Grounds of the Suspicion That the Value of Silver Still Continues to Decrease
- [i.xi.j] Different Effects of the Progress of Improvement Upon the Real Price of Three Different Sorts of Rude Produce
- [i.xi.k] First Sort
- [i.xi.l] Second Sort
- [i.xi.m] Third Sort
- [i.xi.n] Conclusion of the Digression Concerning the Variations In the Value of Silver
- [i.xi.o] Effects of the Progress of Improvement Upon the Real Price of Manufactures
- [i.xi.p] Conclusion of the Chapter
- [ii] Book II: Of the Nature, Accumulation, and Employment of Stock
- Introduction
- [ii.i] Chapter I: Of the Division of Stock
- [ii.ii] Chapter II: Of Money Considered As a Particular Branch of the General Stock of the Society, Or of the Expence of Maintaining the National Capital
- [ii.iii] Chapter III: Of the Accumulation of Capital, Or of Productive and Unproductive Labour
- [ii.iv] Chapter IV: Of Stock Lent At Interest
- [ii.v] Chapter V: Of the Different Employment of Capitals
- [iii] Book III: Of the Different Progress of Opulence In Different Nations
- [iii.i] Chapter I: Of the Natural Progress of Opulence
- [iii.ii] Chapter II: Of the Discouragement of Agriculture In the Antient State of Europe After the Fall of the Roman Empire 1
- [iii.iii] Chapter III: Of the Rise and Progress of Cities and Towns, After the Fall of the Roman Empire
- [iii.iv] Chapter IV: How the Commerce of the Towns Contributed to the Improvement of the Country
- [iv] Book IV: Of Systems of Political Oeconomy
- Introduction
- [iv.i] Chapter I: Of the Principle of the Commercial, Or Mercantile System 1
- [iv.ii] Chapter II: Of Restraints Upon the Importation a From Foreign Countries of Such Goods a As Can Be Produced At Home
- [iv.iii] Chapter III: Of the Extraordinary Restraints Upon the Importation of Goods of Almost All Kinds, From Those Countries With Which the Balance Is Supposed to Be Disadvantageous
- [iv.iii.a] Part I: Of the Unreasonableness of Those Restraints Even Upon the Principles of the Commercial System a
- [iv.iii.b] Digression Concerning Banks of Deposit, Particularly Concerning That of Amsterdam 1
- [iv.iii.c] Part II: Of the Unreasonableness of Those Extraordinary Restraints Upon Other Principles a
- [iv.iv] Chapter IV: Of Drawbacks
- [iv.v.a] Chapter V: Of Bounties
- [iv.v.b] Digression Concerning the Corn Trade and Corn Laws a – a
Grounds of the Suspicion that the Value of Silver still continues to decrease
1The increase of the wealth of Europe, and the popular notion that, as the quantity of the precious metals naturally increases with the increase of wealth, so their value diminishes as their quantity increases, may, dispose many people to believe that their value still continues to fall in the European market; and the still gradually increasing price of many parts of the rude produce of land may confirm them still further in this opinion.
2That that increase the quantity of the precious metals , which arises from the increase of wealth, has no tendency to diminish their value, I have endeavoured to show already. Gold and silver naturally resort to a rich country, for the same reason that all sorts of luxuries and curiosities resort to it; not because they are cheaper there than in poorer countries, but because they are dearer, or because a better price is given for them. It is the superiority of price which attracts them, and as soon as that superiority ceases, they necessarily cease to go thither.
3If you except corn and such other vegetables as are raised altogether by human industry, that all other sorts of rude produce, cattle, poultry, game of all kinds, the useful fossils and minerals of the earth, &c. naturally grow dearer as the society advances in wealth and improvement, I have endeavoured to show already. Though such commodities, therefore, come to exchange for a greater quantity of silver than before, it will not from thence follow that silver has become really cheaper, or will purchase less labour than before, but that such commodities have become really dearer, or will purchase more labour than before. It is not their nominal price only, but their real price which rises in the progress of improvement. The rise of their nominal price is the effect, not of any degradation of the value of silver, but of the rise in their real price.
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