or, if we had occasion to pay debts in Russia or
Holland, funds in England would naturally enough be required for such a
purpose. Even if it did prove that a balance was due England at the
moment, it would have no tendency to explain to us whether our commerce
with England had been profitable or unprofitable.

But it is not true, in point of fact, that the _real_ price of exchange
is seven and a half per cent advance, nor, indeed, that there is at the
present moment any advance at all. That is to say, it is not true that
merchants will give such an advance, or any advance, for _money_ in
England, beyond what they would give for the same amount, in the same
currency, here. It will strike every one who reflects upon it, that, if
there were a real difference of seven and a half per cent, money would
be immediately shipped to England; because the expense of transportation
would be far less than that difference. Or commodities of trade would be
shipped to Europe, and the proceeds remitted to England. If it could so
happen, that American merchants should be willing to pay ten per cent
premium for money in England, or, in other words, that a real difference
to that amount in the exchange should exist, its effects would be
immediately seen in new shipments of our own commodities to Europe,
because this state of things would create new motives. A cargo of
tobacco, for example, might sell at Amsterdam for the same price as
before; but if its proceeds, when remitted to London, were advanced, as
they would be in such case, ten per cent by the state of exchange, this
would be so much added to the price, and would operate therefore as a
motive for the exportation; and in this way national balances are, and
always will be, adjusted.

To form any accurate idea of the true state of exchange between two
countries, we must look at their currencies, and compare the quantities
of gold and silver which they may respectively represent. This usually
explains the state of the exchanges; and this will satisfactorily
account for the apparent advance now existing on bills drawn on England.
The English standard of value is gold; with us that office is performed
by gold, and by silver also, at a fixed relation to each other. But our
estimate of silver is rather higher, in proportion to gold, than most
nations give it; it is higher, especially, than in England, at the
present moment. The consequence is, that silver, which remains a legal
currency wi