Before the discovery of the Spanish West Indies, ten per cent seems to have been the common rate of interest through the greater part of Europe.It has since that time in different countries sunk to six, five, four, and three per cent.Let us suppose that in every particular country the value of silver has sunk precisely in the same proportion as the rate of interest;and that in those countries, for example, where interest has been reduced from ten to five per cent, the same quantity of silver can now purchase just half the quantity of goods which it could have purchased before.This supposition will not, I believe, be found anywhere agreeable to the truth, but it is the most favourable to the opinion which we are going to examine; and even upon this supposition it is utterly impossible that the lowering of the value of silver could have the smallest tendency to lower the rate of interest.If a hundred pounds are in those countries now of no more value than fifty pounds were then, ten pounds must now be of no more value than five pounds were then.Whatever were the causes which lowered the value of the capital, the same must necessarily have lowered that of the interest, and exactly in the same proportion.The proportion between the value of the capital and that of the interest must have remained the same, though the rate had been altered.By altering the rate, on the contrary, the proportion between those two values is necessarily altered.If a hundred pounds now are worth no more than fifty were then, five pounds now can be worth no more than two pounds ten shillings were then.By reducing the rate of interest, therefore, from ten to five per cent, we give for the use of a capital, which is supposed to be equal to one half of its former value, an interest which is equal to one fourth only of the value of the former interest.
Any increase in the quantity of silver, while that of the commodities circulated by means of it remained the same, could have no other effect than to diminish the value of that metal.
The nominal value of all sorts of goods would be greater, but their real value would be precisely the same as before.They would be exchanged for a greater number of pieces of silver; but the quantity of labour which they could command, the number of people whom they could maintain and employ, would be precisely the same.The capital of the country would be the same, though a greater number of pieces might be requisite for conveying any equal portion of it from one hand to another.The deeds of assignment, like the conveyances of a verbose attorney, would be more cumbersome, but the thing assigned would be precisely the same as before, and could produce only the same effects.The funds for maintaining productive labour being the same, the demand for it would be the same.Its price or wages, therefore, though nominally greater, would really be the same.They would be paid in a greater number of pieces of silver; but they would purchase only the same quantity of goods.The profits of stock would be the same both nominally and really.The wages of labour are commonly computed by the quantity of silver which is paid to the labourer.When that is increased, therefore, his wages appear to be increased, though they may sometimes be no greater than before.But the profits of stock are not computed by the number of pieces of silver with which they are paid, but by the proportion which those pieces bear to the whole capital employed.
Thus in a particular country five shillings a week are said to be the common wages of labour, and ten per cent the common profits of stock.But the whole capital of the country being the same as before, the competition between the different capitals of individuals into which it was divided would likewise be the same.
They would all trade with the same advantages and disadvantages.
The common proportion between capital and profit, therefore, would be the same, and consequently the common interest of money;what can commonly be given for the use of money being necessarily regulated by what can commonly be made by the use of it.
Any increase in the quantity of commodities annually circulated within the country, while that of the money which circulated them remained the same, would, on the contrary, produce many other important effects, besides that of raising the value of the money.The capital of the country, though it might nominally be the same, would really be augmented.It might continue to be expressed by the same quantity of money, but it would command a greater quantity of labour.The quantity of productive labour which it could maintain and employ would be increased, and consequently the demand for that labour.Its wages would naturally rise with the demand, and yet might appear to sink.They might be paid with a smaller quantity of money, but that smaller quantity might purchase a greater quantity of goods than a greater had done before.The profits of stock would be diminished both really and in appearance.The whole capital of the country being augmented, the competition between the different capitals of which it was composed would naturally be augmented along with it.The owners of those particular capitals would be obliged to content themselves with a smaller proportion of the produce of that labour which their respective capitals employed.The interest of money, keeping pace always with the profits of stock, might, in this manner, be greatly diminished, though the value of money, or the quantity of goods which any particular sum could purchase, was greatly augmented.
In some countries the interest of money has been prohibited by law.But as something can everywhere be made by the use of money, something ought everywhere to be paid for the use of it.