There is prosperity within a state, not when coin is plentiful and prices are high, but when the coinage has reached that stage of augmentation which must be made to continue indefinitely that makes it possible to maintain wages without increasing prices any further: this being so, the population grows at a steady rate, its work constantly produces more, and, since each consecutive increase in the coinage is divided up (in accordance with the law of representativity) between small quantities of wealth, prices will not increase in relation to those in force abroad.