《国富论》拆解手册5：第四章 论货币的起源及其效用

前情回顾：《国富论》拆解手册1：全书主旨及篇章布局《国富论》拆解手册2：第一章：论分工《国富论》拆解手册3：第二章：论分工的原由《国富论》拆解手册4：第三章：论分工受市场范围的限制英文原文 The Wealth of Nations E-Text | Book I, Chapters 1-5The Wealth of Nations E-Text | Book I, Chapters 1-5www.gradesaver.com

《国富论》用了三章的篇幅，论述了分工的起源、效用及制约因素。为整本书奠定了一个宏大的基础。认了一切商业活动，皆源于分工。所谓一生二，二生三，三生万物。经济学也如此，有了分工这个“一”，就会产生一系列的互动因素。接下来的第四、五、六章，都是论述“货币”(Money）这个至关重要的概念。如果说“分工”是经济学的骨架，那么，货币就是经济学的血液。现在，我们开始拆解第四章：货币的起源及其效用（OF THE ORIGIN AND USE OF MONEY）。4：1 When the division of labour has been once thoroughly established, it is but a very small part of a man's wants which the produce of his own labour can supply. He supplies the far greater part of them by exchanging that surplus part of the produce of his own labour, which is over and above his own consumption, for such parts of the produce of other men's labour as he has occasion for. Every man thus lives by exchanging, or becomes, in some measure, a merchant, and the society itself grows to be what is properly a commercial society.分工一经完全确立，一个人自己劳动的生产物，便只能满足自己欲望的极小部分。他的大部分欲望，须用自己消费不了的剩余劳动生产物，交换自己所需要的别人劳动生产物的剩余部分来满足。于是，一切人都要依赖交换而生活，或者说，在一定程度上，一切人都成为商人，而社会本身，严格地说，也成为商业社会。这一段的立论，沿用了前面几章的基本论点。人生而本弱，有交换的本能，会使用分工的生产物交换别人劳动生产物的剩余(exchange surplus) ，用来养活自己，发展自己。久而久之，就会产生一个“商业社会”(commercial society)，在这个社会里面，一定程度上人人都是商人（merchant）。4：2 But when the division of labour first began to take place, this power of exchanging must frequently have been very much clogged and embarrassed in its operations. One man, we shall suppose, has more of a certain commodity than he himself has occasion for, while another has less. The former, consequently, would be glad to dispose of; and the latter to purchase, a part of this superfluity. But if this latter should chance to have nothing that the former stands in need of, no exchange can be made between them. The butcher has more meat in his shop than he himself can consume, and the brewer and the baker would each of them be willing to purchase a part of it. But they have nothing to offer in exchange, except the different productions of their respective trades, and the butcher is already provided with all the bread and beer which he has immediate occasion for. No exchange can, in this case, be made between them. He cannot be their merchant, nor they his customers ; and they are all of them thus mutually less serviceable to one another. In order to avoid the inconveniency of such situations, every prudent man in every period of society, after the first establishment of the division of labour, must naturally have endeavoured to manage his affairs in such a manner, as to have at all times by him, besides the peculiar produce of his own industry, a certain quantity of some one commodity or other, such as he imagined few people would be likely to refuse in exchange for the produce of their industry. Many different commodities, it is probable, were successively both thought of and employed for this purpose. In the rude ages of society, cattle are said to have been the common instrument of commerce ; and, though they must have been a most inconvenient one, yet, in old times, we find things were frequently valued according to the number of cattle which had been given in exchange for them. The armour of Diomede, says Homer, cost only nine oxen; but that of Glaucus cost a hundred oxen. Salt is said to be the common instrument of commerce and exchanges in Abyssinia ; a species of shells in some parts of the coast of India ; dried cod at Newfoundland; tobacco in Virginia; sugar in some of our West India colonies; hides or dressed leather in some other countries; and there is at this day a village In Scotland, where it is not uncommon, I am told, for a workman to carry nails instead of money to the baker's shop or the ale-house.但在刚开始分工的时候，这种交换力的作用，往往极不灵敏。假设甲持有某种商品，自己消费不了，而乙所持有的这种物品，却不够自己消费。这时，甲当然乐于出卖，乙当然乐于购买甲手中剩余物品的一部分，但若乙手中，并未持有甲目下希求的物品，他们两者间的交易，仍然不能实现。比如，屠户把自己消费不了的肉，放在店内，酿酒家和烙面师，固然都愿意购买自己所需要的一份，但这时，假设他们除了各自的制造品外，没有别种可供交易的物品，而屠户现时需要的麦酒和面包，已经得到了供给，那末，他们彼此之间，没有进行交易的可能。屠户不能作酿酒家和烙面师的商人，而酿酒家和烙面师也不能作屠户的顾客。这样，他们就不能互相帮助。然而，自分工确立以来，各时代各社会中，有思虑的人，为了避免这种不便，除自己劳动生产物外，随时身边带有一定数量的某种物品，这种物品，在他想来，拿去和任何人的生产物交换，都不会见拒绝。为这目的而被人们先后想到并用过的物品可有种种。未开化社会，据说曾以牲畜作为商业上的通用媒介。牲畜无疑是极不便的媒介，但我们却发现了，古代往往以牲畜头数作为交换的评价标准，亦即用牲畜交换各种物品。荷马曾说：迪奥米德的铠甲，仅值牛九头，而格罗卡斯的铠甲，却值牛一百头。据说，阿比西尼亚以盐为商业变换的媒介；印度沿海某些地方，以某种贝壳为媒介；弗吉尼亚用烟草；纽芬兰用干鱼丁；我国西印度殖民地用砂糖；其他若干国家则用兽皮或鞣皮。据我所闻，直到今日，苏格兰还有个乡村，用铁钉作媒介，购买麦酒和面包。当然，第一段只是一个理想状态下的表现：人人交换生物生产物，各取所需，各展所长。但是现实情况是，每个人的资质禀赋，技能经验(dexterity,skill)都不相同，故劳动生产物的产量一定是不一样的。而最重要的是，连需求都不一样。颜回一箪食一瓢足矣生活，薛仁贵三桶饭尤不觉饱。要是他们做交易，薛仁贵注定饿死。既然交易的基础是需求和剩余，那么需求和剩余的不平衡，似乎影响了交易的可能性。而为了避免这种供需不均衡的情况，有远见的人，都会未雨绸缪地“随时身边带有一定数量的任何人都不会拒绝的物品用于交换“。那什么才称得上“不会拒绝的物品”呢？下面一段有答案。4：3 In all countries, however, men seem at last to have been determined by irresistible reasons to give the preference, for this employment, to metals above every other commodity. Metals can not only be kept with as little loss as any other commodity, scarce any thing being less perishable than they are, but they can likewise, without any loss, be divided into any number of parts, as by fusion those parts can easily be re-united again; a quality which no other equally durable commodities possess, and which, more than any other quality, renders them fit to be the instruments of commerce and circulation. The man who wanted to buy salt, for example, and had nothing but cattle to give in exchange for it, must have been obliged to buy salt to the value of a whole ox, or a whole sheep, at a time. He could seldom buy less than this, because what he was to give for it could seldom be divided without loss; and if he had a mind to buy more, he must, for the same reasons, have been obliged to buy double or triple the quantity, the value, to wit, of two or three oxen, or of two or three sheep. If, on the contrary, instead of sheep or oxen, he had metals to give in exchange for it, he could easily proportion the quantity of the metal to the precise quantity of the commodity which he had immediate occasion for.然而，不论在任何国家，由于种种不可抗拒的理由，人们似乎都终于决定使用金属而不使用其他货物作为媒介。金属不易磨损。那与任何其他货物比较，都无愧色。而且，它不仅具有很大的耐久性，它还能任意分割，而全无损失，分割了也可再熔成原形。这性质却为一切其他有耐久性商品所没有。金属的这一特性，使金属成为商业流通上适宜的媒介。例如，假设除了牲畜，就没有别种物品可以换盐，想购买食盐的人，一次所购价值，势必相当于整头牛或整头羊，他所购买的价值，不能低于这个限度，因为他用以购买食盐的物品，不能分割，分割了，就不能复原。如果他想购买更多的食盐，亦只有依同一理由，以牛或羊二三头，购入两倍或三倍多的分量。反之，假如他用以交易的物品，不是牲畜，而是金属，他的问题就容易解决了，他可只按照他目前的需要，分割相当分量的金属，来购买价值相当的物品。这一段的核心句子在前面两句。斯密从历史发展的轨迹发现了一条规律：货物交换媒介多以金属为主，并且提出三个原因：金属不易磨损(less perishable)易于分割，融合( easily divided and re-united)经久耐用(durable)后面的句子，斯密举出牲畜、食物作为商品交换媒介的缺点，反证了金属的优越性。此处不赘述。4：4 Different metals have been made use of by different nations for this purpose. Iron was the common instrument of commerce among the ancient Spartans, copper among the ancient Romans, and gold and silver among all rich and commercial nations.Those metals seem originally to have been made use of for this purpose in rude bars, without any stamp or coinage. Thus we are told by Pliny (Plin. Hist Nat. lib. 33, cap. 3), upon the authority of Timaeus, an ancient historian, that, till the time of Servius Tullius, the Romans had no coined money, but made use of unstamped bars of copper, to purchase whatever they had occasion for. These rude bars, therefore, performed at this time the function of rnoney.各国为此目的而使用的金属，并不相同。古斯巴达人用铁，古罗马人用铜，而一切富裕商业国的国民却使用金银。最初用作交换媒介的金属，似乎都是粗条，未加何种印记或铸造。普林尼引古代历史家蒂米阿斯的话说：直到瑟维阿斯·图利阿斯时代为止，罗马人还没有铸造的货币，他们购买需要的物品都使用没有刻印的铜条、换言之，这些粗条，就是当时当作货币使用的东西。这一段仍然以历史为依据，分析金属作为交换媒介的发展轨迹。从铁，到铜，再到金银，无论是从开采成本，还是金属本身的产量、以及金属氧化属性来说，金银>铜>铁，并似乎印证着这一条真理：一切富裕商业国的国民却使用金银(gold and silver among all rich and commercial nations)。但是和真正的货币还有一段距离，因为这些金属大部分只是没有任何“印记”或“铸造”(stamp or coinage)的粗条（rude bar），就像武侠片里面熊熊浩瀚从口袋里掏出的碎银一样，不具备精确的价值。商品交换媒介的广泛使用，奠定了货币的基础。历史仍需发展到统一“铸币权”才真正地宣告诞生。这一段还隐含两个意思：货币诞生的前提是，同一种或多种金属广泛地使用，并形成区域统一的交换价值，最终社会将这个交换价值的定价权交给成熟的政权，从而形成统一的铸币权和发行权。4：5 The use of metals in this rude state was attended with two very considerable inconveniences ; first, with the trouble of weighing, and secondly, with that of assaying them. In the precious metals, where a small difference in the quantity makes a great difference in the value, even the business of weighing, with proper exactness, requires at least very accurate weights and scales. The weighing of gold, in particular, is an operation of some nicety In the coarser metals, indeed, where a small error would be of little consequence, less accuracy would, no doubt, be necessary. Yet we should find it excessively troublesome if every time a poor man had occasion either to buy or sell a farthing's worth of goods, he was obliged to weigh the farthing. The operation of assaying is still more difficult, still more tedious ; and, unless a part of the metal is fairly melted in the crucible, with proper dissolvents, any conclusion that can be drawn from it is extremely uncertain. Before the institution of coined money, however, unless they went through this tedious and difficult operation, people must always have been liable to the grossest frauds and impositions; and instead of a pound weight of pure silver, or pure copper, might receive, in exchange for their goods, an adulterated composition of the coarsest and cheapest materials, which had, however, in their outward appearance, been made to resemble those metals. To prevent such abuses, to facilitate exchanges, and thereby to encourage all sorts of industry and commerce, it has been found necessary, in all countries that have made any considerable advances towards improvement, to affix a public stamp upon certain quantities of such particular metals, as were in those countries commonly made use of to purchase goods. Hence the origin of coined money, and of those public offices called mints; institutions exactly of the same nature with those of the aulnagers and stamp-masters of woollen and linen cloth. All of them are equally meant to ascertain, by means of a public stamp, the quantity and uniform goodness of those different commodities when brought to market.在这样粗陋状况下，金属的使用，有两种极大的不便。第一是称量的麻烦；第二是化验的麻烦。贵金属在分量上有少许差异，在价值上便会有很大差别。但要正确称量这类金属，至少需备有极精密的法码和天平。金的称量，尤其是一种精细的操作。诚然，贱金属称量稍差，在价值上不会发生大的影响，因此，没有仔细称量的必要。但若一个穷人，买卖值一个铜板的货物，也需每次称量这一个铜板的重量，就不免令人觉得麻烦极了。化验金属的工作，却更为困难，更为烦琐。要不是把金属的一部分放在坩埚里，用适当的熔解药熔解，检验的结果就很不可靠。在铸币制度尚未实施以前，除非通过这种又困难又烦琐的检验，否则就很容易受到极大的欺骗。他们售卖货物的所得，可能是表面上很象一磅纯银或纯铜，而其中却混有许多最粗劣最低贱的金属。所以，进步国家，为避免此种弊害、便利交易、促进各种工商业发达起见，都认为有必要，在通常用以购买货物的一定分量的特定金属上，加盖公印。于是就有了铸币制度和称为造币厂的官衙。这种制度的性质，类似麻布呢绒检查官制度。这些检查官的任务是，通过加盖公印，确定这市上各种商品的分量，划一它们的品质。斯密率先指出“非统一价值”的金属的缺点：称量的麻烦（weighing 量化与定价）化验的麻烦（assaying真伪鉴定）正是由于贵金属（金银）的铸造、称量、化验鉴定都十分麻烦，并非平常人能够轻易为之。想想，一个平民要得到一份贵金属，从挖矿、提炼、熔铸、称量，在古代乃至现代也是无法轻易完成。所以，这些耗时甚久的工作，逐渐就落入地方政权乃至国家政府手里，因为只有国家/地方政权才有这等人力物力去完成铸币工作。而铸币最后一道环节，就是保持来源的权威和单一，防止伪造冲击铸币的价值。于是乎就有“购买货物的一定分量的特定金属上，加盖公印”（affix a public stamp upon certain quantities of such particular metals）。斯密认为，加盖官印有两个作用：确立制度，防伪 (public offices called mints)确定分量和价值（ascertain the quantity and uniform goodness ）4：6 The first public stamps of this kind that were affixed to the current metals, seem in many cases to have been intended to ascertain, what it was both most difficult and most important to ascertain, the goodness or fineness of the metal, and to have resembled the sterling mark which is at present affixed to plate and bars of silver, or the Spanish mark which is sometimes affixed to ingots of gold, and which, being struck only upon one side of the piece, and not covering the whole surface, ascertains the fineness, but not the weight of the metal. Abraham weighs to Ephron the four hundred shekels of silver which he had agreed to pay for the field of Machpelah. They are said, however, to be the current money of the merchant, and yet are received by weight, and not by tale, in the same manner as ingots of gold and bars of silver are at present. The revenues of the ancient Saxon kings of England are said to have been paid, not in money, but in kind, that is, in victuals and provisions of all sorts. William the Conqueror introduced the custom of paying them in money. This money, however, was for a long time, received at the exchequer, by weight, and not by tale,最初盖在货币金属上的公印，其目的似乎都在于确定，那必须确定而又最难确定的金属的品质或纯度。当时的刻印，与现今银器皿和银条上所刻的纯度标记很相似。在金块上刻印，但只附在金属一面而不盖住金属全面的西班牙式标记，亦与此相似。它所确定的，只是金属的纯度，不是金属的重量。传载，亚伯拉罕秤银四百舍克尔给伊弗伦，作为马克派拉田地的代价。据说，舍克尔是当时商人流通的货币。可是，那时金属货币的流通，和今日金块银条的授受一样，都不论个数，只论重量。在古代，撒克逊人入主英格兰，其岁人据说不是征取货币，而是征取实物，即各种食粮。以货币缴纳的习惯，是征服王威廉第一创始的。不过，当时纳入国库的货币，在很长的一段时期里，是按重量而不按个数计收的。承上所言，铸币的作用在于断定真伪和界定货币的价值。货币的价值长期取决于两个因素：1。金属的纯度（fineness）2。金属的重量（weight）而这两个因素很长时间里，都不能同时出现。要么只论纯度不论重量，要么纸轮重量不论数量。为什么呢？在我个人看来，这和当时的社会生产力有关系。当时生产力落后，贵金属铸造的纯度基本只能依靠单一的机构去完成，社会其他地方没有那么多仿造的货币，故一种纯度，一种规格的贵金属就可以界定基本价值，无需按重量计算，这多用于金锭(ingot of gold)。后来，社会生产力发展，大面值的金锭流通不方便，只能按照一定面值的金锭，细分出若干个重量的小面值的贵金属（例如金币、银币），便于流通。这种小面值金属，脱胎于金锭，纯度已经固定（理想情况下），所以只需论重量即可断定交易的面值。所以整个过程中，金属的纯度（fitness）和重量（weigh）是两个最重要的变量，而这两个变量的控制，最大的问题是精准。4：7 The inconveniency and difficulty of weighing those metals with exactness, gave occasion to the institution of coins, of which the stamp, covering entirely both sides of the piece, and sometimes the edges too, was supposed to ascertain not only the fineness, but the weight of the metal. Such coins, therefore, were received by tale, as at present, without the trouble of weighing.要称量金属而毫无差误，是很麻烦和很困难的。这便引出了铸币制度。铸币的刻印，不仅盖住金属块的两面，有时还盖住它的边缘。这种刻印，不但要确定金属的纯度，还要确定它的重量。自是以后，铸币就象现在那样，全以个数授受，没有称重量的麻烦了。这就是铸币制度诞生的社会基础：对于贵金属纯度及重量的鉴定与测量须交由权威机构统一界定。故诞生了铸币局等机构，最后把金属的纯度和重量，都准确无误地厘定下来，解决了百姓商业活动中的两大难题。这种解决交易问题所衍生的公信力，形成了政府的信用体系。从此以后，百姓只需要采用这种统一铸币，就可以安心交易，无需担心货币真伪和价值问题了。也就是说：货币交易媒介的标准化和统一，奠定了商业社会的基础。这是一个非常了不起的举措。时至今日，每当一个机构发行新的货币，例如比特币，都需要解决货币真伪和面值两个核心问题。时至今日，理解通货膨胀和广义货币，都需要从这一条标准说起。4：8 The denominations of those coins seem originally to have expressed the weight or quantity of metal contained in them. In the time of Servius Tullius, who first coined money at Rome, the Roman as or pondo contained a Roman pound of good copper. It was divided, in the same manner as our Troyes pound, into twelve ounces, each of which contained a real ounce of good copper. The English pound sterling, in the time of Edward I. contained a pound, Tower weight, of silver of a known fineness. The Tower pound seems to have been something more than the Roman pound, and something less than the Troyes pound. This last was not introduced into the mint of England till the 18th of Henry the VIII. The French livre contained, in the time of Charlemagne, a pound, Troyes weight, of silver of a known fineness. The fair of Troyes in Champaign was at that time frequented by all the nations of Europe, and the weights and measures of so famous a market were generally known and esteemed. The Scots money pound contained, from the time of Alexander the First to that of Robert Bruce, a pound of silver of the same weight and fineness with the English pound sterling. English, French, and Scots pennies, too, contained all of them originally a real penny-weight of silver, the twentieth part of an ounce, and the two hundred-and-fortieth part of a pound. The shilling, too, seems originally to have been the denomination of a weight. "When wheat is at twelve shillings the quarter," says an ancient statute of Henry III." then wastel bread of a farthing shall weigh eleven shillings and fourpence". The proportion, however, between the shilling, and either the penny on the one hand, or the pound on the other, seems not to have been so constant and uniform as that between the penny and the pound. During the first race of the kings of France, the French sou or shilling appears upon different occasions to have contained five, twelve, twenty, and forty pennies. Among the ancient Saxons, a shilling appears at one time to have contained only five pennies, and it is not improbable that it may have been as variable among them as among their neighbours, the ancient Franks. From the time of Charlemagne among the French, and from that of William the Conqueror among the English, the proportion between the pound, the shilling, and the penny, seems to have been uniformly the same as at present, though the value of each has been very different ; for in every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins. The Roman as, in the latter ages of the republic, was reduced to the twenty-fourth part of its original value, and, instead of weighing a pound, came to weigh only half an ounce. The English pound and penny contain at present about a third only ; the Scots pound and penny about a thirty-sixth ; and the French pound and penny about a sixty-sixth part of their original value. By means of those operations, the princes and sovereign states which performed them were enabled, in appearance, to pay their debts and fulfil their engagements with a smaller quantity of silver than would otherwise have been requisite. It was indeed in appearance only ; for their creditors were really defrauded of a part of what was due to them. All other debtors in the state were allowed the same privilege, and might pay with the same nominal sum of the new and debased coin whatever they had borrowed in the old. Such operations, therefore, have always proved favourable to the debtor, and ruinous to the creditor, and have sometimes produced a greater and more universal revolution in the fortunes of private persons, than could have been occasioned by a very great public calamity.那些铸币的名称，看来原要表明内含的重量或数量。罗马铸造货币，始于瑟维阿斯·图利阿斯时代，当时罗马币阿斯（AS）或庞多（Pondo）含有纯铜一罗马磅。阿斯或庞多，象我们的特鲁瓦磅那样，分为十二盎斯，每盎斯含有纯铜一盎斯。在爱德华一世时代，一英磅含有纯银一陶尔磅。一隅尔磅似比一罗马磅多些，而比一特鲁瓦磅少些。特鲁瓦磅，到亨利八做第十八年，才由英国造币厂采用。特鲁瓦是法国东北部香槟省的一个城市，在那时候，欧洲各国人民时常出入它的市场，大家因此都熟悉并尊重这个有名市场所用的权衡。在查理曼大帝时代，法币利佛（Livre）含纯银一特鲁瓦磅。苏格兰币一磅，自亚力山大一世至布鲁斯时代止，都含有与英币一镑同重量同纯度的银一磅。英格兰、法兰西和苏格兰的货币一便土，最初都含有重一便士的银，即一盎斯的二十分之一的银，或一磅的二百四十分之一的银。先令最初似亦系重量名称。亨利三世当时的法律规定：小麦一夸特值二十先令时，值一个铜板的上等小麦面包，须重十二先令四便士。不过，先令对便士或先令对磅的比例，似乎不象便士对磅的比例那么稳定。法国古时的苏（Sou）或先令，有时含五便土，有时含十二便土，有时含二十乃至四十便士。在古代撒克逊人间，一先令在某一个时期似只含五便土，其含量的变动，与其邻国人即法兰克人的先令大抵很类似。法国自查理曼大帝时代以来，英格兰自征服王威廉第一时代以来，镑、先令或便士的价值，虽有很大变动，但彼此间的比例，似和现今一样，没有多大变动。我相信，世界各国的君主，都是贪婪不公的。他们欺骗臣民，把货币最初所含金属的真实分量，次第削减。在罗马共和国后期，罗马的阿斯，减到原价的二十四分之一，含量名为一磅，实只半盎斯。英格兰的镑和使士，现今价值大约相当于当初的三分之一；苏格兰的镑和便士，大约相当于当初的三十六分之一；法国的镑和便士，大约相当于当初的五十六分之一。通过采用这些办法，君王和国家就能以较小量的银，表面上偿还债务，并履行各种契约。实际上，政府的债权人因此被剥夺了一部分应得的权利。政府允许国内一切其他债务人，都有和君王相等的特权，他们同样能以新的贬值币，偿还货币改铸前借来的金额。所以，这种措施，常有利于债务人，而有损于债权人；有的时候，这种措施产生了比公共大灾祸所能产生的大得多、普遍得多的个人财产上的革命。这一段很长。但是核心的概念就是第一句：货币价值是由面额和对应纯度金属的重量或数量比例决定的（The denominations of those coins seem originally to have expressed the weight or quantity of metal contained in them）。斯密列举了历史上，世界各国的铸币名称、面值和真正价值的例子。这些冗长的例子揭示出一个深刻的道理：面值是浮动的，价值是不变的。这就是为什么，每逢战乱或政局动荡，黄金总能成为避险货币的原因。因为世界上就只有那么点黄金。而面值是人造的概念。而斯密认为：世界各国的君主，都是贪婪不公的。他们欺骗臣民，把货币最初所含金属的真实分量，次第削减（the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins）。这就是为什么，货币还是那个货币，只是内在价值早已变化无常，付诸东流了。这条观点也许能解释，为什么世界各国政府，每逢经济危机（钱不够用的时候），都会发行大量M2货币，以此充实账面，刺激经济，原来印钞打鸡血古已有之，并非新事。4：9 It is in this manner that money has become, in all civilized nations, the universal instrument of commerce, by the intervention of which goods of all kinds are bought and sold, or exchanged for one another.但货币却就在这情况下，成为一切文明国商业上的通用媒介。通过这媒介，一切货物都能进行买卖，都能相互交换。这是货币诞生的一个总结陈词：货币是商品交易的通行媒介。这段非常浅白，无需多言。4：10 What are the rules which men naturally observe, in exchanging them either for money, or for one another, I shall now proceed to examine. These rules determine what may be called the relative or exchangeable value of goods.我现在要讨论人们在以货币交换货物或只货物交换货物时所遵循的法则。这些法则决定所谓商品相对价值或交换价值。斯密在对货币起源盖棺定论之后，提炼出了一个非常有power的概念：交换价值(exchangable value)。4：11 The word VALUE, it is to be observed, has two different meanings, and sometimes expresses the utility of some particular object, and sometimes the power of purchasing other goods which the possession of that object conveys. The one may be called ' value in use ;' the other, 'value in exchange.' The things which have the greatest value in use have frequently little or no value in exchange ; and, on the contrary, those which have the greatest value in exchange have frequently little or no value in use. Nothing is more useful than water ; but it will purchase scarce any thing; scarce any thing can be had in exchange for it. A diamond, on the contrary, has scarce any value in use; but a very great quantity of other goods may frequently be had in exchange for it.应当注意，价值一词有二个不同的意义。它有时表示特定物品的效用，有时又表示由于占有某物而取得的对他种货物的购买力。前者可叫做使用价值，后者可叫做交换价值。使用价值很大的东西，往往具有极小的交换价值，甚或没有；反之，交换价值很大的东西，往往具有极小的使用价值，甚或没有。例如，水的用途最大，但我们不能以水购买任何物品，也不会拿任何物品与水交换。反之，金钢钻虽几乎无使用价值可言，但须有大量其他货物才能与之交换。斯密继而提出价值则以概念的两种含义：物品的效用（使用价值value in use）和购买力（交换价值value in exchange）。而使用价值与交换价值之间的关系，往往依靠稀缺性（scarcity）来界定。所谓物以稀为贵是也。4：12 In order to investigate the principles which regulate the exchangeable value of commodities, I shall endeavour to shew,First, what is the real measure of this exchangeable value; or wherein consists the real price of all commodities.Secondly, what are the different parts of which this real price is composed or made up.And, lastly, what are the different circumstances which sometimes raise some or all of these different parts of price above, and sometimes sink them below, their natural or ordinary rate; or, what are the causes which sometimes hinder the market price, that is, the actual price of commodities, from coinciding exactly with what may be called their natural price.为要探讨支配商品交换价值的原则，我将努力阐明以下三点：第一，什么是交换价值的真实尺度，换言之，构成一切商品真实价格的，究竟是什么，第二，构成真实价格的各部分，究竟是什么，第三，什么情况使上述价格的某些部分或全部，有时高于其自然价格或普通价格，有时又低于其自然价格或普通价格？换言之，使商品市场价格或实际价格，有时不能与共自然价格恰相一致的原因何在？斯密继续探究价值的组成元素：价值的标准价格的构成价格变动的因素4：13 I shall endeavour to explain, as fully and distinctly as I can, those three subjects in the three following chapters, for which I must very earnestly entreat both the patience and attention of the reader : his patience, in order to examine a detail which may, perhaps, in some places, appear unnecessarily tedious; and his attention, in order to understand what may perhaps, after the fullest explication which I am capable of giving it, appear still in some degree obscure. I am always willing to run some hazard of being tedious, in order to be sure that I am perspicuous; and, after taking the utmost pains that I can to be perspicuous, some obscurity may still appear to remain upon a subject, in its own nature extremely abstracted.关于这三个问题，我将在以下三章内尽力作出详细明了的说明。不过，有些地方象似冗赘，要请读者忍耐；有些地方虽经我竭力作详尽的说明，恐仍难免说得不够清楚，要请读者细心体会。我因要求十分明了，往往不惮烦琐。但对一个极其抽象的问题，即使殚精竭虑，期其明了，恐仍难免有些不明白的地方。这段为作者自述，不多言。以下为本章的思维导图：