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.

Leviathan, Or the Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiastical and Civill. By Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury (ed. 1651)