Book IV: Chapter 1

CHAPTER I.

OF THE PRINCIPLE OF THE COMMERCIAL OR MERCANTILE SYSTEM.

That wealth consists in money, or in gold and silver, is a
popular notion which naturally arises from the double function of
money, as the instrument of commerce, and as the measure of
value. In consequence of its being the instrument of commerce,
when we have money we can more readily obtain whatever else we
have occasion for, than by means of any other commodity. The
great affair, we always find, is to get money. When that is
obtained, there is no difficulty in making any subsequent
purchase. In consequence of its being the measure of value, we
estimate that of all other commodities by the quantity of money
which they will exchange for. We say of a rich man, that he is
worth a great deal, and of a poor man, that he is worth very
little money. A frugal man, or a man eager to be rich, is said to
love money ; and a careless, a generous, or a profuse man, is
said to be indifferent about it. To grow rich is to get money ;
and wealth and money, in short, are, in common language,
considered as in every respect synonymous.

A rich country, in the same manner as a rich man, is supposed to
be a country abounding in money ; and to heap up gold and silver
in any country is supposed to be the readiest way to enrich it.
For some time after the discovery of America, the first inquiry
of the Spaniards, when they arrived upon any unknown coast, used
to be, if there was any gold or silver to be found in the
neighbourhood? By the information which they received, they
judged whether it was worth while to make a settlement there, or
if the country was worth the conquering. Plano Carpino, a monk
sent ambassador from the king of France to one of the sons of the
famous Gengis Khan, says, that the Tartars used frequently to ask
him, if there was plenty of sheep and oxen in the kingdom of
France ? Their inquiry had the same object with that of the
Spaniards. They wanted to know if the country was rich enough to
be worth the conquering. Among the Tartars, as among all other
nations of shepherds, who are generally ignorant of the use of
money, cattle are the instruments of commerce and the measures of
value. Wealth, therefore, according to them, consisted in cattle,
as, according to the Spaniards, it consisted in gold and silver.
Of the two, the Tartar notion, perhaps, was the nearest to the
truth.

Mr Locke remarks a distinction between money and other moveable
goods. All other moveable goods, he says, are of so consumable a
nature, that the wealth which consists in them cannot be much
depended on; and a nation which abounds in them one year may,
without any exportation, but merely by their own waste and
extravagance, be