XII.: Laws cannot regulate or alter the value of money.

41. Silver being made money, and thereby becoming, as it were, a commodity universally coveted; wherein every one deals, and to which every one hath a right, according to his respective share of property: No set of men have it in their power to settle, alter, or in any wise regulate the value of money; nor can laws do any thing in the case, otherwise than as by their influence, they may increase or diminish, the whole quantity in circulation; and so affect the value of a given sum, or the prices of things.

The prices of particular commodities are every day subject to change, from natural causes; and the same may be brought about, by artificial means. But to alter the value of money, would be to alter uniformly and universally, the prices of all commodities; a thing manifestly out of the reach of laws, and no other way to be accomplished, than by altering the proportion between the sum total of the one, and the sum total of the other; and this, perhaps, is continually done, though gradually and insensibly, by the common course of things.

It is the business of laws to establish rules for coining; that is, to fix a standard, both as to weight and fineness, for coins having certain denominations; and a standard being fixed, it would be difficult to shew, why it should be afterwards deviated from. For, do what you can; coins, as soon as they are out of the mint, are quite free throughout their whole progress, to find their own value, according to the quantity of pure metal they contain; that is, to purchase as much of any thing, as the marketprice will allow. And it seems quite a paralogism to say, which yet I have often heard said, that in any country, money is either too cheap or too dear; or, that its value is in any wise subject to legal restraints or regulations, otherwise than as such regulations might affect the quantity of the whole stock in currency.