If the pension of such a person was paid to him, not in gold, but in a
weekly bill for a guinea, his revenue surely would not so properly consist
in the piece of paper, as in what he could get for it. A guinea may be
considered as a bill for a certain quantity of necessaries and conveniencies
upon all the tradesmen in the neighbourhood The revenue of the person to
whom it is paid, does not so properly consist in the piece of gold, as in
what he can get for it, or in what he can exchange it for. If it could be
exchanged for nothing, it would, like a bill upon a bankrupt, be of no more
value than the most useless piece of paper.

Though the weekly or yearly revenue of all the different inhabitants of any
country, in the same manner, may be, and in reality frequently is, paid to
them in money, their real riches, however, the real weekly or yearly revenue
of all of them taken together, must always be great or small, in proportion
to the quantity of consumable goods which they can all of them purchase with
this money. The whole revenue of all of them taken together is evidently not
equal to both the money and the consumable goods, but only to one or other of
those two values, and to the latter more properly than to the former.

Though we frequently, therefore, express a person's revenue by the metal
pieces which are annually paid to him, it is because the amount of those
pieces regulates the extent of his power of purchasing, or the value of the
goods which he can annually afford to consume. We still consider his revenue
as consisting in this power of purchasing or consuming, and not in the
pieces which convey it.

But if this is sufficiently evident, even with regard to an individual, it
is still more so with regard to a society. The amount of the metal pieces
which are annually paid to an individual, is often precisely equal to his