Itisnotthesameoftermsinanyotherscience，asabundantlyappearsfromthequestionnowbeforeus:coiniscalledarepresentationbecauseitisanequivalent；andbecauseitisarepresentation，itmustbearanexactproportiontothethingrepresented。Andsinceinsomeparticularexamples，thisrepresentationappearstohold；thereforetheruleismadegeneral，althoughcircumstancesmaybedifferent。If，forexample，amerchant，oraprivateperson，hasinhandathousandpoundsworthofgrain，nodoubtthatthethousandthpartofthemerchandizeisworththethousandthpartofthesum；becausebotharedeterminateintheirquantityandquality。buttheparcelsofthiscorn，thoughexactlyproportionedtothepriceofthewhole，donotdrawtheirvaluefromthisproportion，butfromthetotalvalueofthewholemass；whichisdeterminedfromthecomplicatedoperationsofdemandandcompetition，ashasbeensaid，andnotfromthespecieofthecountrywhichcanbearnoproportioneithertothequantityorqualityofthegrain。
Theremaybevastquantitiesofcoininacountryoflittleindustry；and，viceversa，coinisconstantlyanequivalent，butneverarepresentationmorethananyotherequivalentwhichmaybecontrived。Werethedoctrineofthissecondpropositiontrue，everycommodityinacountryshouldbesoldlikeaparcelofthegrainintheforegoingexample，bytheruleofthree；asthepropertyofallthelabourandmanufacturesofthecountryistothepartIintendtoalienate，soisallthegoldandsilverinthecountrytothepartIamentitledtoreceive。Thisidealofregulatingpricesmaybeveryphilosophical，butitisnotverymercantile。Inowproceedtothethirdandlastproposition。
Increasethecommodities，theybecomecheaper:increasethemoney，theyriseintheirvalue。
Thispropositionismuchtoogeneral；thefirstpartofitiscommonlytrue，thelastpartismorecommonlyfalse。
Whatcanincreasecommodities，butademandforthem？Ifthedemandbeequaltotheaugmentation，therewillbenoalterationintheprice。