BULLION, uncoined gold or silver in the mass.
Those metals are called so, either when smelted from the native ore, and not per fectly refined ; or when they are perfect ly refined, but melted down in bars or ingots, or in an .unwrought body, of any degree of fineness When gold and slyer are in their puri ty, they are so soft and flexible, that they cannot well be brought into any fast on for use, without being first reduced and hardened with an alloy of some other baser metal.
To prevent those abuses, which some might be tempted to commit in the mak ing of such alloys, the legislators of civi lized countries have ordained, that there shall be no more than a certain prop ar tion of a baser metal to a. particular Tian thy of pure gold or silver, in order to make them of the finent ss of what is called the standard gold or silver of such a country.
According to the laws of England, all sorts of wrought plate in geth.ral ought to be made to the legal standard ; and the price of our standard gold and silver is the common rule whereby 'o set a value on their bullion, whether the same be in ingots, bars, dust, or in foreign specie ; whence it is easy to conceive, that the va lue of bullion cannot be exactly known, without being first assayed, that the ex act quantity of pure metal therein con tained may be determined, and conse quently whether it be above or below the standard.
Silver and gold, whether coined or un coined (though used for a common mea sure of other things) are no less a com modity than wine, tobacco, or cloth ; and may, in many cases, be exported as much to the national advantage as any -other commodity.