the contrary, silver is a better measure than corn, because equal quantities
of it will more nearly command the same quantity of labour.

But though, in establishing perpetual rents, or even in letting very long
leases, it may be of use to distinguish between real and nominal price; it
is of none in buying and selling, the more common and ordinary transactions.
of human life.

At the same time and place, the real and the nominal price of all
commodities are exactly in proportion to one another. The more or less money
you get for any commodity, in the London market, for example, the more or
less labour it will at that time and place enable you to purchase or
command. At the same time and place, therefore, money is the exact measure
of the real exchangeable value of all commodities. It is so, however, at the
same time and place only.

Though at distant places there is no regular proportion between the real and
the money price of commodities, yet the merchant who carries goods from the
one to the other, has nothing to consider but the money price, or the
difference between the quantity of silver for which he buys them, and that
for which he is likely to sell them. Half an ounce of silver at Canton in
China may command a greater quantity both of labour and of the necessaries
and conveniencies of life, than an ounce at London. A commodity, therefore,
which sells for half an ounce of silver at Canton, may there be really
dearer, of more real importance to the man who possesses it there, than a
commodity which sells for an ounce at London is to the man who possesses it
at London. If a London merchant, however, can buy at Canton, for half an
ounce of silver, a commodity which he can afterwards sell at London for an
ounce, he gains a hundred per cent. by the bargain, just as much as if an
ounce of silver was at London exactly of the same value as at Canton. It is