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.The great wheel of circulationis altogether different from the goods which are circulated bymeans of it.The revenue of the society consists altogether in thosegoods, and not in the wheel which circulates them.In computingeither the gross or the net revenue of any society, we must always,from their whole annual circulation of money and goods, deductthe whole value of the money, of which not a single farthing canever make any part of either.It is the ambiguity of language only which can make thisAdam Smith ElecBook Classics The Wealth of Nations: Book 2 380proposition appear either doubtful or paradoxical.When properlyexplained and understood, it is almost self-evident.When we talk of any particular sum of money, we sometimesmean nothing but the metal pieces of which it is composed; andsometimes we include in our meaning some obscure reference tothe goods which can be had in exchange for it, or to the power ofpurchasing which the possession of it conveys.Thus when we saythat the circulating money of England has been computed ateighteen millions, we mean only to express the amount of themetal pieces, which some writers have computed, or rather havesupposed to circulate in that country.But when we say that a man is worth fifty or a hundred poundsa year, we mean commonly to express not only the amount of themetal pieces which are annually paid to him, but the value of thegoods which he can annually purchase or consume.We meancommonly to ascertain what is or ought to be his way of living, orthe quantity and quality of the necessaries and conveniencies oflife in which he can with propriety indulge himself.When, by any particular sum of money, we mean not only toexpress the amount of the metal pieces of which it is composed,but to include in its signification some obscure reference to thegoods which can be had in exchange for them, the wealth orrevenue which it in this case denotes, is equal only to one of thetwo values which are thus intimated somewhat ambiguously bythe same word, and to the latter more properly than to the former,to the money s worth more properly than to the money.Thus if a guinea be the weekly pension of a particular person,he can in the course of the week purchase with it a certainquantity of subsistence, conveniencies, and amusements.InAdam Smith ElecBook Classics The Wealth of Nations: Book 2 381proportion as this quantity is great or small, so are his real riches,his real weekly revenue.His weekly revenue is certainly not equalboth to the guinea, and to what can be purchased with it, but onlyto one or other of those two equal values; and to the latter moreproperly than to the former, to the guinea s worth rather than tothe guinea.If the pension of such a person was paid to him, not in gold, butin a weekly bill for a guinea, his revenue surely would not soproperly consist in the piece of paper, as in what he could get forit.A guinea may be considered as a bill for a certain quantity ofnecessaries and conveniencies upon all the tradesmen in theneighbourhood.The revenue of the person to whom it is paid,does not so properly consist in the piece of gold, as in what he canget for it, or in what he can exchange it for.If it could beexchanged for nothing, it would, like a bill upon a bankrupt, be ofno more value than the most useless piece of paper.Though the weekly or yearly revenue of all the differentinhabitants of any country, in the same manner, may be, and inreality frequently is paid to them in money, their real riches,however, the real weekly or yearly revenue of all of them takentogether, must always be great or small in proportion to thequantity of consumable goods which they can all of them purchasewith this money.The whole revenue of all of them taken togetheris evidently not equal to both the money and the consumablegoods; but only to one or other of those two values, and to thelatter more properly than to the former.Though we frequently, therefore, express a person s revenue bythe metal pieces which are annually paid to him, it is because theamount of those pieces regulates the extent of his power ofAdam Smith ElecBook Classics The Wealth of Nations: Book 2 382purchasing, or the value of the goods which he can annually affordto consume.We still consider his revenue as consisting in thispower of purchasing or consuming, and not in the pieces whichconvey it.But if this is sufficiently evident even with regard to anindividual, it is still more so with regard to a society.The amountof the metal pieces which are annually paid to an individual, isoften precisely equal to his revenue, and is upon that account theshortest and best expression of its value.But the amount of themetal pieces which circulate in a society can never be equal to therevenue of all its members.As the same guinea which pays theweekly pension of one man to-day, may pay that of another to-morrow, and that of a third the day thereafter, the amount of themetal pieces which annually circulate in any country must alwaysbe of much less value than the whole money pensions annuallypaid with them
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