Page:The wealth of nations, volume 2.djvu/297

 the whole transaction would have been two per cent exactly the same, bat no greater than it actually was.

If the seigniorage had been five per cent and the gold currency only two per cent below its standard weight, the bank would in this case have gained three per cent upon the price of the bullion; but as they would have had a seigniorage of five per cent to pay upon the coinage, their loss upon the whole transaction would, in the same manner, have been exactly two per cent.

If the seigniorage had been only one per cent and the gold currency two per cent below its standard weight, the bank would in this case have lost only one per cent upon the price of the bullion; but as they would likewise have had a seigniorage of one per cent to pay, their loss upon the whole transaction would have been exactly two per cent in the same manner as in all other cases.

If there was a reasonable seigniorage, while at the same time the coin contained its full standard weight, as it has done very nearly since the late recoinage, whatever the bank might lose by the seigniorage, they would gain upon the price of the bullion; and whatever they might gain upon the price of the bullion, they would lose by the seigniorage. They would neither lose nor gain, therefore, upon the whole transaction, and they would in this, as in all the foregoing cases, be exactly in the same situation as if there was no seigniorage.

When the tax upon a commodity is so moderate as not to encourage smuggling, the merchant who deals in it, though he advances, does not properly pay the tax, as he gets it back in the price of the commodity. The tax is finally paid by the last purchaser or consumer. But money is a commodity with regard to which every man is