expense, first to erect them, and afterwards to support them, both which
expenses, though they make a part of the gross, are deductions from the neat
revenue of the society ; so the stock of money which circulates in any
country must require a certain expense, first to collect it, and afterwards
to support it; both which expenses, though they make a part of the gross,
are, in the same manner, deductions from the neat revenue of the society. A
certain quantity of very valuable materials, gold and silver, and of very
curious labour, instead of augmenting the stock reserved for immediate
consumption, the subsistence, conveniencies, and amusements of individuals,
is employed in supporting that great but expensive instrument of commerce,
by means of which every individual in the society has his subsistence,
conveniencies, and amusements, regularly distributed to him in their proper
proportions.

Secondly, as the machines and instruments of trade, etc. which compose the
fixed capital either of an individual or of a society, make no part either
of the gross or of the neat revenue of either ; so money, by means of which
the whole revenue of the society is regularly distributed among all its
different members, makes itself no part of that revenue. The great wheel of
circulation is altogether different from the goods which are circulated by
means of it. The revenue of the society consists altogether in those goods,
and not in the wheel which circulates them. In computing either the gross or
the neat revenue of any society, we must always, from the whole annual
circulation of money and goods, deduct the whole value of the money, of
which not a single farthing can ever make any part of either.

It is the ambiguity of language only which can make this proposition appear
either doubtful or paradoxical. When properly explained and understood, it
is almost self-evident.