starve on heaps of gold.  What would it be if the law prohibited exportation?  As to the second supposition—­that of the gold which we obtain by trade; it is an advantage, or the reverse, according as the country stands more or less in need of it, compared to its wants of the useful things which must be given up in order to obtain it.  It is not for the law to judge of this, but for those who are concerned in it; for if the law should start upon this principle, that gold is preferable to useful things, whatever may be their value, and if it should act effectually in this sense, it would tend to make France another California, where there would be a great deal of cash to spend, and nothing to buy.  It is the very same system which is represented by Midas.

B. The gold which is imported implies that a useful thing is exported, and in this respect there is a satisfaction withdrawn from the country.  But is there not a corresponding benefit?  And will not this gold be the source of a number of new satisfactions, by circulating from hand to hand, and inciting to labour and industry, until at length it leaves the country in its turn, and causes the importation of some useful thing?

F. Now you have come to the heart of the question.  Is it true that a crown is the principle which causes the production of all the objects whose exchange it facilitates?  It is very clear that a piece of five francs is only worth five francs; but we are led to believe that this value has a particular character:  that it is not consumed like other things, or that it is exhausted very gradually; that it renews itself, as it were, in each transaction; and that, finally this crown has been worth five francs, as many times as it has accomplished transactions—­that it is of itself worth all the things for which it has been successively exchanged; and this is believed, because it is supposed that without this crown these things would never have been produced.  It is said, the shoemaker would have sold fewer shoes, consequently he would have bought less of the butcher; the butcher would not have gone so often to the grocer, the grocer to the doctor, the doctor to the lawyer, and so on.

B. No one can dispute that.

F. This is the time, then, to analyse the true function of cash, independently of mines and importations.  You have a crown.  What does it imply in your hands?  It is, as it were, the witness and proof that you have, at some time or other, performed some labour, which, instead of profiting by it, you have bestowed upon society in the person of your client.  This crown testifies that you have performed a service for society, and, moreover, it shows the value of it.  It bears witness, besides, that you have not yet obtained from society a real equivalent service, to which you have a right.  To place you in a condition to exercise this right, at the time and in the manner you please, society, by means of