By concoction,I understand the reducing of all commodities which are not presently consumed,but reserved for nourishment in time to come,to something of equal value,and withal so portable as not to hinder the motion of men from place to place;to the end a man may have in what place soever such nourishment as the place affordeth.And this is nothing else but gold,and silver,and money.For gold and silver,being,as it happens,almost in all countries of the world highly valued,is a commodious measure of the value of all things else between nations;and money,of what matter soever coined by the sovereign of a Commonwealth,is a sufficient measure of the value of all things else between the subjects of that Commonwealth.By the means of which measures all commodities,movable and immovable,are made to accompany a man to all places of his resort,within and without the place of his ordinary residence;and the same passeth from man to man within the Commonwealth,and goes round about,nourishing,as it passeth,every part thereof;in so much as this concoction is,as it were,the sanguification of the Commonwealth:for natural blood is in like manner made of the fruits of the earth;and,circulating,nourisheth by the way every member of the body of man.
And because silver and gold have their value from the matter itself,they have first this privilege;that the value of them cannot be altered by the power of one nor of a few Commonwealths;as being a common measure of the commodities of all places.But base money may easily be enhanced or abased.Secondly,they have the privilege to make Commonwealths move and stretch out their arms,when need is,into foreign countries;and supply,not only private subjects that travel,but also whole armies with provision.But that coin,which is not considerable for the matter,but for the stamp of the place,being unable to endure change of air,hath its effect at home only;where also it is subject to the change of laws,and thereby to have the value diminished,to the prejudice many times of those that have it.
The conduits and ways by which it is conveyed to the public use are of two sorts:one,that conveyeth it to the public coffers;the other,that issueth the same out again for public payments.Of the first sort are collectors,receivers,and treasurers;of the second are the treasurers again,and the officers appointed for payment of several public or private ministers.And in this also the artificial man maintains his resemblance with the natural;whose veins,receiving the blood from the several parts of the body,carry it to the heart;where,being made vital,the heart by the arteries sends it out again,to enliven and enable for motion all the members of the same.
The procreation or children of a Commonwealth are those we call plantations,or colonies;which are numbers of men sent out from the Commonwealth,under a conductor or governor,to inhabit a foreign country,either formerly void of inhabitants,or made void then by war.And when a colony is settled,they are either a Commonwealth of themselves,discharged of their subjection to their sovereign that sent them (as hath been done by many Commonwealths of ancient time),in which case the Commonwealth from which they went was called their metropolis,or mother,and requires no more of them than fathers require of the children whom they emancipate and make free from their domestic government,which is honour and friendship;or else they remain united to their metropolis,as were the colonies of the people of Rome;and then they are no Commonwealths themselves,but provinces,and parts of the Commonwealth that sent them.So that the right of colonies,saving honour and league with their metropolis,dependeth wholly on their license,or letters,by which their sovereign authorized them to plant.