him of the commodity he is in need of, and he gives the preference to the highest offer. The value of corn and of wine is no longer debated between two isolated Individuals in relation to their relative wants and abilities; it is fixed by the balance of the wants and abilities[1] of the whole body[2] of the Sellers of corn with those of the whole body of the Sellers of wine. For he who would willingly give eight pints of wine for a bushel of corn will only give four when he learns that a Proprietor of corn consents to give two bushels of corn for eight pints. The price mid-way[3] between the different offers and the different demands will become the current price, whereto all the Buyers and Sellers will conform in their exchanges; and it will be true to say that six pints of wine are the equivalent of a bushel of corn for everyone if that is the mean price, until a diminution of the offer on the one side or of the demand on the other causes this valuation to change.
S33
Commerce gives to each article of commerce a current value, with respect to every other article; whence it follows that every article of commerce is the equivalent of a certain quantity of every other article, & can be regarded as a pledge which represents it.
Corn is exchanged not only for wine, but for all other articles which the proprietors of corn may need; for wood, leather, wool, cotton, etc.: it is the same with wine and with every other kind of produce.[4] If one bushel of corn
