An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

by Adam Smith

approximation

hereafter

commercial ...

peculiarly

commerce.

asses or in sestertii.

as was always the denomination of a copper coin.

sestertius signifies two asses...

There were silver coins in England in the time of the Saxons;

guineas,

pounds sterling

legal tender of...

The proportion between the values of gold and silver money was not fixed by any public law or proclamation, but was left to be settled by the market.

debtor

cre...

nominal distinction.

ascertain

shillings,

In this state of things, and during the continuance of any one regulated proportion of this kind, the distinction between the metal, which is the standard, and that which is not the standard, becomes little more than a nominal distinction.

regulated pro...

The value of gold would seem to depend upon the quantity of silver which it would exchange for,

This difference, however, would be altogether owing to the custom of keeping accounts, and of expressing the amount of all great and small sums rather in silver than in gold money.

promissory-notes

In reality, during the continuance of any one regulated proportion between the respective values of the different metals in coin, the value of the most precious metal regulates the value of the whole coin.

avoirdupois

pence

shilling,

guinea,

The reformation of the gold coin has evidently raised the value of the silver coin which can be exchanged for it.

English mint, a pound weight of gold is coined into forty-four guineas and a half, which at one-and-twenty shillings the guinea, is equal to forty-six pounds fourteen shillings and sixpence.

seign...

bu...

reformation

Before the reformation of the gold coin, the market price was always more or less above the mint price.

Since that reformation, the market price has been constantly below the mint price.

The late reformation of the gold coin, therefore, has raised not only the value of the gold coin, but likewise that of the silver coin in proportion to gold bullion, and probab...

pound weight of standard silver bullion is coined into sixty-two shillings,

bullion

precluded

creditors.

This delay is equivalent to a small duty, and renders gold in coin somewhat more valuable than an equal quantity of gold in bullion.

seignorage

duty,

exigency,

mint price,

The constancy and steadiness of the effect supposes a proportionable constancy and steadiness in the cause.

diminution,

the merchant adjusts the price of his goods as well as he can, not to what those weights and measures ought to be, but to what, upon an average, he finds, by experience, they actually are.

money price

COMPONENT PART