Excerpt from A Treatise on Metallic and Paper Money and Banks: Written for the Encyclopaedia BritannicaThe quality of serving as a measure of value is, there fore, inherent in every commodity. But the slow degrees by which the precious metals change their value, renders them peculiarly well fitted for forming a standard by which to compare the values of other and more variable articles. To this standard reference is almost always made in estimating the value of products in civilised countries. We do not say that one man is worth a thousand acres of land, and that another is worth a thousand sheep, but we ascertain for how much gold or silver the land and the sheep would respectively exchange, and then say that their proprietors are worth so much money. But in this there is nothing mysterious. We merely compare the value of one commodity with the value of another. And as coin or money is the most convenient standard of comparison, the value of other commodities is usually estimated or rated in it.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books.

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