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.Were the silver coin brought back as near to its standard weightas the gold, a guinea, it is probable, would, according to thepresent proportion, exchange for more silver in coin than it wouldpurchase in bullion.The silver coin containing its full standardweight, there would in this case be a profit in melting it down, inorder, first, to sell the bullion for gold coin, and afterwards toexchange this gold coin for silver coin to be melted down in thesame manner.Some alteration in the present proportion seems tobe the only method of preventing this inconveniency.The inconveniency perhaps would be less if silver was rated inthe coin as much above its proper proportion to gold as it is atpresent rated below it; provided it was at the same time enactedthat silver should not be a legal tender for more than the change ofa guinea, in the same manner as copper is not a legal tender formore than the change of a shilling.No creditor could in this casebe cheated in consequence of the high valuation of silver in coin;as no creditor can at present be cheated in consequence of theAdam Smith ElecBook Classics The Wealth of Nations: Book 1 69high valuation of copper.The bankers only would suffer by thisregulation.When a run comes upon them they sometimesendeavour to gain time by paying in sixpences, and they would beprecluded by this regulation from this discreditable method ofevading immediate payment.They would be obliged inconsequence to keep at all times in their coffers a greater quantityof cash than at present; and though this might no doubt be aconsiderable inconveniency to them, it would at the same time bea considerable security to their creditors.Three pounds seventeen shillings and tenpence halfpenny (themint price of gold) certainly does not contain, even in our presentexcellent gold coin, more than an ounce of standard gold, and itmay be thought, therefore, should not purchase more standardbullion.But gold in coin is more convenient than gold in bullion,and though, in England, the coinage is free, yet the gold which iscarried in bullion to the mint can seldom be returned in coin to theowner till after a delay of several weeks.In the present hurry ofthe mint, it could not be returned till after a delay of severalmonths.This delay is equivalent to a small duty, and renders goldin coin somewhat more valuable than an equal quantity of gold inbullion.If in the English coin silver was rated according to itproper proportion to gold, the price of silver bullion wouldprobably fall below the mint price even without any reformation ofthe silver coin; the value even of the present worn and defacedsilver coin being regulated by the value of the excellent gold coinfor which it can be changed.A small seignorage or duty upon the coinage of both gold andsilver would probably increase still more the superiority of thosemetals in coin above an equal quantity of either of them in bullion.Adam Smith ElecBook Classics The Wealth of Nations: Book 1 70The coinage would in this case increase the value of the metalcoined in proportion to the extent of this small duty; for the samereason that the fashion increases the value of plate in proportionto the price of that fashion.The superiority of coin above bullionwould prevent the melting down of the coin, and would discourageits exportation.If upon any public exigency it should becomenecessary to export the coin, the greater part of it would soonreturn again of its own accord.Abroad it could sell only for itsweight in bullion.At home it would buy more than that weight.There would be a profit, therefore, in bringing it home again.InFrance a seignorage of about eight per cent is imposed upon thecoinage, and the French coin, when exported, is said to returnhome again of its own accord.The occasional fluctuations in the market price of gold andsilver bullion arise from the same causes as the like fluctuations inthat of all other commodities.The frequent loss of those metalsfrom various accidents by sea and by land, the continual waste ofthem in gilding and plating, in lace and embroidery, in the wearand tear of coin, and in that of plate; require, in all countrieswhich possess no mines of their own, a continual importation, inorder to repair this loss and this waste.The merchant importers,like all other merchants, we may believe, endeavour, as well asthey can, to suit their occasional importations to what, they judge,is likely to be the immediate demand.With all their attention,however, they sometimes overdo the business, and sometimesunderdo it.When they import more bullion than is wanted, ratherthan incur the risk and trouble of exporting it again, they aresometimes willing to sell a part of it for something less than theordinary or average price.When, on the other hand, they importAdam Smith ElecBook Classics The Wealth of Nations: Book 1 71less than is wanted, they get something more than this price
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