' "There is required for carrying on the trade of the nation, a deter-
minate sum of specific money, which varies ... as the cux:umstances we
are in requires. . . . This ebbing and flowing of money supplies and
acconmiodates itself without any aid of politicians. ..." Diacoursei (1691)
p. 35. '



72 THE POSITION OF THE LABORER

these writers, it is true, affirmed the dependence of em-
ployment upon the quantity of money and so should not
be grouped with the authors whom we have considered
above; but they certainly lent the power of their authority
— slight, as has been seen, in the case of North, but not so
in Petty's — to the support of the popular belief that a
dearth of precious metal might exist, and this belief bore
directly upon the doctrines of labor in the minds of other
writers. Even Hume, who judgied with sufficient clearness
as to the true function of money, gave his support to the
opinion that employment depended upon the state of the
monetary stock; he said:

We may conclude that 't is of no manner of consequence with
regard to the domestic happiness of a state whether money be in
greater or less quantity. The good policy o£ the magistrate con-
sists only in keeping it, if possible, still increasing, because by
that means, he keeps the spirit of industry alive in the nation,
and increases the stock of labor, wherein consists all real power
and riches.*

Thus, except that he minimized the importance of the
absolute supply of money, Hume gave his assent to the
popular opinion that employment is conditioned upon an
increasing stock of precious metal.
