BINDING BY
GEO. A. SIMONDS & CO.
WASHINGTON, D. C.

Accurate Observation and Clarity of Thought
are the Prime Requisites of Economic Study

Publication Committee

Andrew P. Canning, Chairman, Chicago, Ill.

Table of Contents

PAGE
Preface[vii]
First Lesson—Economics[1]
Second Lesson—Money[9]
Third Lesson—Trade[17]
Fourth Lesson—The Basic Facts[27]
Fifth Lesson—The Productive Process[40]
I. Human Factors[42]
II. Natural Resource Factors[50]
III. Artificial Objects[52]
IV. Secondary Categories[56]
1—Capital[56]
2—Trade[60]
3—Utility, Value, Money, Price, Banks[63]
4—Balances of Trade[67]
V. An Illustration of the Productive Process[70]
Sixth Lesson—Distribution[74]
I. Wages for Labor[75]
II. Rent for Landownership[83]
III. Trade[91]
IV. Money[94]
Seventh Lesson—Review[97]
Questions for Self-Examination[101]
Personal Acknowledgments[103]

PREFACE

The purpose of this common-sense explanation of Economic phenomena is to disclose and emphasize those comprehensive and familiar primary facts which embody the myriads of secondary facts that are involved in Economic science. To avoid confusing those complicated details is to promote the clear thinking which every Economic problem demands, be the problem one of collegiate study, of political policy, or of business importance.

The following pages aim, therefore, at encouraging all thoughtful citizens so to classify the details of the general subject in their own minds as to enable them to avoid centering their mental vision upon Economic trees so intently that they cannot see the Economic forest as a whole. It aims also at discouraging the opposite inclination to view the Economic forest so exclusively as a whole that the Economic trees of which it is composed cannot be distinguished.