HKB
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Often appears with: value, price, and exchange · trade, markets, and merchants · trade balance not equal to exchange · money, coin, and credit · exchange at par · bills of exchange
Usually: argument (1) · skepticism (1)
Smith explains that exchange at par only indicates debts between places are offset, but real trade balances can differ due to third-party dealings (e.g., England paying Hamburg via bills on Holland).
the ordinary state of debt and credit between two places, must likewise be an indication of the ordinary course of their exports and imports, as these necessarily regulate that state. But though the ordinary course of exchange shall be allowed to be a sufficient indication of the ordinary state of debt and credit between any two places, it would not from thence follow, that the balance of trade was …