its daily food, so quietly, and so effectually,without bustle, without even organization,-without excess, as without waste the supply so equally adjusted to the demand, that the prices of butchers' meat and bread do not perhaps suffer a variation of a farthing throughout the year, which is not to be accounted for by natural causes affecting the original sources of supply? What is it that performs this daily miracle, which only does not excite our continual admiration because it is self-effected with all the order, ease, and cer tainty of a great natural process? Why, the principle of competition; the free and open rivalry of thousands of individuals, each acting according to his own discretion in his own self-appointed sphere; each actuated by the unerring instinct of self-interest, which prompts him to produce as much as he can sell, but no more; to sell as much as he can with a profit, but to provide no more than he can dispose of without loss; to keep the supply full, but to prevent excess. An abundant supply causes each producer to lower his prices, and thus enables the public to enjoy that abundance, while he is guided only by the apprehension of being undersold; and, on the other hand, an actual or apprehended scarcity causes him to demand a higher price, or to keep back his goods in expectation of a rise. For doing this the dealers of provisions are often exposed to odium, as if they were the cause of the scarcity; while in reality they are performing the important service of husbanding the supply in proportion to its deficiency, and thus warding off the calamity of famine. The dealers deserve neither censure

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for the scarcity they are ignorantly supposed to produce, nor credit for the important public service they in reality perform. They are merely occupied in gaining a fair livelihood. And in the pursuit of this object, without any comprehensive wisdom, or any need of it, they co-operate, unknowingly, in conducting a system, which, we may safely say, no human wisdom directed to that end could have conducted so well; the system by which this enormous population is fed from day to day*?

The advantages of the division and combination of labour will still further appear, when we come to treat of the several classes into which society divides itself as civilization advances.

The direct exchange of goods of any kind for goods is called barter; and, as it is the most simple mode of exchange, so we find it still the only method in use among some uncivilized nations. But its excessive inconvenience must suggest, even to a very low degree of intelligence, the advantage of improving upon it. Suppose a savage, for example, to have taken and killed a bullock, or other large animal, which he would find a difficulty in consuming alone. He is desirous of exchanging the surplus beyond his own consumption for a variety of other objects which he is in want of. His neighbours, on their side, are anxious to purchase his meat, but it is highly improbable that each should have by him, and can spare, just that quantity of any of the peculiar articles of which the owner of the meat stands in need, which will enable the former to obtain

*Whately's Lectures, p. 108.

in exchange the precise quantity of meat which he desires. To obviate this difficulty, which must be continually recurring, one or other of two very simple methods would suggest themselves : the one, that he who had the meat or other object to dispose of, should give credit to him who wanted it, on his engagement to repay him either the same or such other object as may be agreed upon, when able to do so, or at some definite time; the other, that individuals should generally keep by them a stock of some peculiar article in general request, a portion of which would be readily taken by every seller in exchange for his commodity. The first of these methods of facilitating exchanges is that of credit, the second of money. Both were probably coeval in their origin. Both have continued in use with more or less of improvement among all nations, civilized as well as uncivilized, to the present day.

Of the commodities that have been, and in some instances still are, in use as money by different nations, we may instance oxen, shells, salt, leather, and iron, &c. But in nearly all countries men seem to have been at an early period determined by irresistible reasons to employ in preference for this purpose the more valuable metals, copper, silver, and gold. These reasons are, their possessing qualities fitting them for this peculiar office, in a far superior degree to any other commodity of intrinsic worth. They may be kept almost any time without loss; they are of such rarity, and so much esteemed (that is, of such great intrinsic value), that small portions of them, easy to be carried about (more especially of the two

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precious metals) will exchange for comparatively large quantities of most other goods; and they may be divided without loss into any number of parts, and re-united again, through their fusibility, with the same ease. The only dif ficulty was that of ascertaining their precise quantity and quality. For this purpose it would be necessary both to weigh and assay them. But as the process of weighing and assaying each piece of metal every time it was taken in exchange would have been an endless one, wholly destructive of all the convenience to be derived from its use as money, it seems to have been very soon discovered that the government of every country, in order to prevent imposition as to their weight or quality, should affix a certain stamp on the bits of metal to be employed as money, indicative of its quantity and fineness; at the same time prohibiting by law the issue, or mintage, as it is called, of money by private individuals, punishing the imposition on the public of false money, when detected, by the heaviest penalties. So stamped, money is called coin; and on the faith of this government stamp, and the laws by which its imitation is prohibited, coined money passes current by tale, without the troublesome process of weighing or assaying. It is in this form that the precious metals, gold and silver, have become the universal measure of the value of other commodities, and the principal instrument or medium for their exchange.

But we have already mentioned the existence and general use of another medium for conducting exchanges besides money of intrinsic value;

G

namely, Credit, or the confidence placed by one individual in the engagement of another to pay him at a certain time a certain quantity of goods or money. This mode of conducting exchanges has one great and evident advantage over the use of money, namely, that it saves individuals the necessity of keeping by them a stock of an expensive commodity, for no other purposes than that which their credit, if unquestionable, would answer equally well. On the other hand, the drawback to the use of credit, as a medium of exchange, is its insecurity. Every one may know in the circle of his neighbours and acquaintance, individuals whom, from their character for rectitude and honesty, he would trust, to any extent, with untold gold;' but, unfortunately, our moral nature is by no means so perfect as to admit of such confidence being universal, or any thing like it. In order, therefore, to prevent, as far as possible, frauds upon the over-credulous, it has been found necessary, in all countries, for the government to enforce by laws the fulfilment of engagements-a necessity parallel to that which led, as just explained, to the laws for regulating the coinage of money. Supported by this guarantee, credit has performed its part as an instrument of exchange in all ages and countries where commerce has made any progress, and that to an extent seldom perhaps fully recognized by writers on these subjects. Because the precious metals, coined or uncoined, have been almost always and everywhere employed as the measure of value, they have been hastily concluded to have been likewise the principal, if not the only, instrument