Note 89 — PART II. CONTAINING Remarks on some Particulars in a Speech at opening the Budget in April 1776.

It has been thought very strange, that a piece of metal should bear a higher price, merely because it wants the stamp of the mint. But the reason is, that bullion alone being exportable in any considerable quantity, the price of it must vary as the demand for it varies; or, in other words, as the balance of payment between us and the rest of the world is favourable or unfavourable.—This will be explained at the beginning of the Third Part, where it will appear that, in consequence of the increase of luxury and the national debt, this balance has been generally against us ever since the end of the last war.