Page:Malthus 1823 The Measure of Value.djvu/79

 which the rise is assumed to have taken place, and to have continued progressively."

Of the subsidence here alluded to, before 1814, Mr. Tooke has certainly not given proofs sufficiently general; but without dwelling on this point, it appears to me that the question of the fall in the value of the currency including the gold, is exclusively a question of fact, and must be referred to some criterion. It is a very intelligible thing to say that paper has fallen, if it has fallen with regard to the gold which it professes to represent; but it is not intelligible to say that gold has not fallen, when it is acknowledged to have fallen both with regard to its power of purchasing generally, and its power of commanding labour; unless a reference can be made for the proof of it to some more satisfactory criterion. A season of scarcity will make corn dear, and a season of plenty cheap, without necessarily affecting labour in either case, as is shown by Adam Smith, and proved by repeated experience. But if seasons of scarcity occur so frequently as to raise generally the bullion price of labour, it must of necessity be accompanied by a power of purchasing bullion with a smaller quantity of labour and profits; otherwise the event could not