The standard of equivalences is itself involved in the system of exchanges, and the buying power of money signifies nothing but the marketable value of the metal. 'Mercantilism' freed money from the postulate of the intrinsic value of metal – the folly of those who 'say that money is a commodity like other things'– and at the same time established between it and wealth a strict relation of representation and analysis. As a pledge, money designates a certain wealth: it establishes its price. In rich countries, the influx of labour makes possible the exploitation of new wealth, the sale of which proportionately increases the amount of metal in circulation. Value, occupies exactly the same position in the analysis of wealth as structure does in natural history. The analyses of representation, language, natural orders, and wealth are perfectly coherent and homogeneous with regard to one another, there exists, nevertheless, a profound disequilibrium.