29 Oct. 1800

Polit. Economy

4

Thus far the nugatory - now comes the paradoxical - which in the minds /to the

eyes/ of the great bulk of men and even reading and thinking men, is the same

thing with the untrue.

The first of the two days in question the quantity of coined gold possessed by

the whole community taken together is a million of pounds weight, and no more.

The second day, it is two millions. What follows? - On The second day instead of

being as rich again in wealth not-pecuniary as, we have seen, the individual

was, as on the first, it is no richer than it was before: instead of having

twice the quantity that it had of non-pecuniary wealth non pecuniary at command

that it had, it has no more at command than it had before.

True it is, that by exporting into other communities, this suddenly acquired

mass of a /the second/ million of pounds weight of gold or any given part of it

may obtain in exchange the possession of an addition to a certain amount to its

mass of non-pecuniary wealth: but in proportion as such exchange obtains, the

case last supposed is altered. The community in question Great Britain ceases to

possess the additional million of gold: whereas in the case of the individual

whatever proportion of gold he parted with, in order to obtain a correspondent

portion of non-pecuniary wealth, the quantity of wealth remaining in the

community (Great Britain) remained undiminished.