CHAPTER		PAGE
[I.]	Wealth and its Origin	[1]
[II.]	Varieties of Economic Goods	[20]
[III.]	The Measure of Consumers' Wealth	[39]
[IV.]	The Socialization of Industry	[59]
[V.]	Production a Synthesis; Distribution an Analysis	[74]
[VI.]	Value and its Relation to Different Incomes	[92]
[VII.]	Normal Value	[114]
[VIII.]	Wages	[127]
[IX.]	The Law of Interest	[146]
[X.]	Rent	[159]
[XI.]	Land and Artificial Instruments	[174]
[XII.]	Economic Dynamics	[195]
[XIII.]	The Limits of an Economic Society	[210]
[XIV.]	Effects of Dynamic Influences within the Limited Economic Society	[229]
[XV.]	Perpetual Change of the Social Structure	[244]
[XVI.]	Effect of Improvements in Methods of Production	[256]
[XVII.]	Further Influences which reduce the Hardships entailed by Dynamic Changes	[282]
[XVIII.]	Capital as affected by Changes of Method	[301]
[XIX.]	The Law of Population	[321]
[XX.]	The Law of Accumulation of Capital	[339]
[XXI.]	Conditions insuring Progress in Method and Organization	[358]
[XXII.]	Influences which pervert the Forces of Progress	[372]
[XXIII.]	General Economic Laws affecting Transportation	[396]
[XXIV.]	The Foregoing Principles applied to the Railroad Problem	[416]
[XXV.]	Organization of Labor	[451]
[XXVI.]	The Basis of Wages as fixed by Arbitration	[470]
[XXVII.]	Boycotts and the Limiting of Products	[503]
[XXVIII.]	Protection and Monopoly	[517]
[XXIX.]	Leading Facts concerning Money	[538]
[XXX.]	Summary of Conclusions	[555]
[INDEX]		[563]

ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMIC THEORY

CHAPTER I

WEALTH AND ITS ORIGIN

The creation and the use of wealth are everywhere governed by natural laws, and these, as discovered and stated, constitute the science of Economics. Some of them come into operation only when men live in more or less civilized societies and work in an organized way, while others are operative wherever men work at all. Every man who lives must have something that can be called wealth, and, unless it is given to him, he must do something in order to get it. A solitary hunter, living in a cave, eating the flesh of animals and clothing himself in their skins, would create wealth and use it; but he would not take part in a social kind of industry. What he does could not be described as a bit of "social," "national," or "political" economy. Yet the gaining of his living would be an economic operation and would involve a creating and using of wealth. A statement of the laws governing the processes by which such a man makes the earth yield to him means of support and comfort would constitute a Science of the Economy of Isolated Life, which is a part of the general Science of Economics.

Primitive Capital.—If an isolated man hunts with good implements, he gets more game than he would have done if he had not used some of his time in making such implements. It pays such a man to interrupt his hunting long enough to make a spear or a bow and arrows. This amounts to saying that it is an advantage to him to become, in a simple way, a capitalist as well as a laborer; for the primitive implements of the chase are forms of productive wealth, or capital. Moreover, if he possesses foresight, he will keep enough food within reach to tide him over periods when game is not to be had, and such a store is another form of capital.