ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the inquiry into the consumption of the precious metals from 1810 to 1830. Gold and silver, though the most common materials of money, cannot act as such while in an uncoined state; they are then not money, but the raw material of money. In the present condition of society, every individual cannot turn bullion into coin at his pleasure; and, therefore, coin may be of considerably higher value than bullion of the same standard of weight and quality, if the demand for coin be more urgent than the demand for bullion. Silver has utility for the purposes of plate, furniture, and ornament, as well as for those of money; and is the more copiously employed on those objects, in proportion to the degree of national Wealth. Its use in the peculiar character of money is proportionate to the quantity of moveable and immoveable objects of property.
