Gold, on the contrary, though of little use compared with air or water, will exchange for a great quantity of other goods.

Profits might also increase, because improvements might take place in agriculture, or in the implements of husbandry, which would augment the produce with the same cost of production.

In the same manner if any nation wasted part of its wealth, or lost part of its trade, it could not retain the same quantity of circulating medium which it before possessed.

If English money was of the same value then as before, Hamburgh money must have risen in value. But where is the proof of this?

There is no way of keeping profits up but by keeping wages down.

No extension of foreign trade will immediately increase the amount of value in a country, although it will very powerfully contribute to increase the mass of commodities and therefore the sum of enjoyments.

But it is clear that the price of labour has no necessary connection with the price of food, since it depends entirely on the supply of labourers compared with the demand.