his own calendering machine, and calculating that he shall expend twenty pounds in materials, and the remaining eighty in supporting himself and in paying the workmen who assist him in constructing it.  The other workman, meeting with a machine which he can buy for two hundred pounds, agrees to pay for it a hundred pounds immediately, and the remainder at the end of a twelvemonth.  Let us now imagine some alteration to take place in the currency, by which it is depreciated one-half:  prices soon adjust themselves to the new circumstances, and the annuity of the widow, though nominally of the same amount, will, in reality, purchase only half the quantity of the necessaries of life which it did before.  The workman who had placed his money in the savings’ bank, having perhaps purchased ten pounds’ worth of materials, and expended ten pounds in labour applied to them, now finds himself, by this alteration in the currency, possessed nominally of eighty pounds, but in reality of a sum which will purchase only half the labour and materials required to finish his machine; and he can neither complete it, from want of capital, nor dispose of what he has already done in its unfinished state for the price it has cost him.  In the meantime, the other workman, who had incurred a debt of a hundred pounds in order to complete the purchase of his calendering machine, finds that the payments he receives for calendering, have, like all other prices, doubled, in consequence of the depreciation of the currency; and he has therefore, in fact, obtained his machine for one hundred and fifty pounds.  Thus, without any fault or imprudence, and owing to circumstances over which they have no control, the widow is reduced almost to starve; one workman is obliged to renounce, for several years, his hope of becoming a master; and another, without any superior industry or skill, but in fact, from having made, with reference to his circumstances, rather an imprudent bargain, finds himself unexpectedly relieved from half his debt, and the possessor of a valuable source of profit; whilst the former owner of the machine, if he also has invested the money arising from its sale in the savings’ bank, finds his property suddenly reduced one-half.

180.  These evils, to a greater or less extent, attend every change in the value of the currency; and the importance of preserving it as far as possible unaltered in value, cannot be too strongly impressed upon all classes of the community.

Notes: 

1.  In Russia platinum has been employed for coin; and it possesses a peculiarity which deserves notice.  Platinum cannot be melted in our furnaces, and is chiefly valuable in commerce when in the shape of ingots, from which it may be forged into useful forms.  But when a piece of platinum is cut into two parts, it cannot easily be reunited except by means of a chemical process, in which both parts are dissolved in an acid.  Hence, when platinum coin is too abundant, it cannot, like gold, be reduced into masses by melting, but must pass through an expensive process to render it useful.