Page:The wealth of nations, volume 2.djvu/295

 hundred and seventy-one livres ten deniers. But in France this mark of standard gold is coined into thirty louis-d'ors of twenty-four livres each, or into seven hundred and twenty livres. The coinage, therefore, increases the value of a mark of standard gold bullion, by the difference between six hundred and seventy-one livres ten deniers, and seven hundred and twenty livres; or by forty-eight livres nineteen sous and two deniers.

A seigniorage will, in many cases, take away altogether, and will, in all cases, diminish the profit of melting down the new coin. This profit always arises from the difference between the quantity of bullion which the common currency ought to contain, and that which it actually does contain. If this difference is less than the seigniorage, there will be loss instead of profit. If it is equal to the seigniorage, there will neither be profit nor loss. If it is greater than the seigniorage, there will indeed be some profit, but less than if there was no seigniorage. If, before the late reformation of the gold coin, for example, there had been a seigniorage of five per cent upon the coinage, there would have been a loss of three per cent upon the melting down of the gold coin. If the seigniorage had been two per cent there would have been neither profit nor loss. If the seigniorage had been one per cent there would have been a profit, but of one per cent only instead of two per cent. Wherever money is received by tale, therefore, and not by weight, a seigniorage is the most effectual preventive of the melting down of the coin, and, for the same reason, of its exportation. It is the best and heaviest pieces that are commonly either melted down or exported; because it is upon such that the largest profits are made.

The law for the encouragement of the coinage, by