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# Annual Consumption of Metals

## Definition

The total amount of gold and silver used up each year through wear, damage, industrial processes, and other forms of consumption that remove these metals from circulation or usable form.

## Source Chapter

Book I, Chapter 11

## Context

Smith examines how the annual consumption of precious metals must be balanced by new production to maintain stable supplies, and how this consumption affects their long-term value.

## Economic Domain

Consumption

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