visions they bought in silver; on which account, he adds, that metal is even more plentiful in England than in Germany, and all the money of England is made of pure silver. The balance of trade, then, was what is commonly called in favour of England, unreasonably enough, as if nothing were wealth but gold and silver. The country at this time did not really become richer by exchanging its produce for money, than it would have done by taking foreign produce or manufactures in exchange for it. Nor, even if we should hold money to be the only true wealth, could it have accumulated in the country with more rapidity or to a greater amount under the one system than under the other; for a country in a given social condition can only retain a certain quantity of money in circulation within it, and that quantity it always will obtain, if it is able to obtain anything else of equivalent value. Money is necessary, and profitable to a certain extent, just as shoes or hats are; but beyond that extent, neither they nor it are either profitable or necessary—that is to say, something else for which the article could be exchanged would be more useful. The money anciently obtained by England through its foreign trade did not enrich the country, or even remain in it; so much of it as was not required for the purposes of circulation was as sure to find its way abroad again, as the stone thrown up into the air is to return to the ground.
If the commerce of England had not struck far deeper root, and grown to far greater magnitude and strength, at the time of the death of Henry II. than at that of Henry I., somewhat more than half a century before, the reign of Richard would have been, in proportion to its length, nearly as ruinous to it as was the disorderly and distracted reign of Stephen. All the activity and resources of the country were now turned from trade and industry to the wasteful work of war, which was carried on, indeed, in a foreign and distant land, and therefore did not produce the confusion and desolation within the kingdom that would have resulted from a civil contest; but, on the other hand, was, doubtless, on that account attended with a much larger expenditure both of money and of human
