coin several different metals into money; gold for larger payments, silver
for purchases of moderate value, and copper, or some other coarse metal, for
those of still smaller consideration, They have always, however, considered
one of those metals as more peculiarly the measure of value than any of the
other two; and this preference seems generally to have been given to the
metal which they happen first to make use of as the instrument of commerce.
Having once begun to use it as their standard, which they must have done
when they had no other money, they have generally continued to do so even
when the necessity was not the same.

The Romans are said to have had nothing but copper money till within five
years before the first Punic war (Pliny, lib. xxxiii. cap. 3), when they
first began to coin silver. Copper, therefore, appears to have continued
always the measure of value in that republic. At Rome all accounts appear to
have been kept, and the value of all estates to have been computed, either
in asses or in sestertii. The as was always the denomination of a copper
coin. The word sestertius signifies two asses and a half. Though the
sestertius, therefore, was originally a silver coin, its value was estimated
in copper. At Rome, one who owed a great deal of money was said to have a
great deal of other people's copper.

The northern nations who established themselves upon the ruins of the
Roman empire, seem to have had silver money from the first beginning of
their settlements, and not to have known either gold or copper coins for
several ages thereafter. There were silver coins in England in the time of
the Saxons ; but there was little gold coined till the time of Edward III
nor any copper till that of James I. of Great Britain. In England,
therefore, and for the same reason, I believe, in all other modern nations
of Europe, all accounts are kept, and the value of all goods and of all
estates is generally computed, in silver: and when we mean to express the