CHAPTER II: SPECIALIZATION OF FUNCTIONS AND DIVISION OF LABOUR.

§ 728. These titles are in one sense equivalents and in another sense not. As used most comprehensively, the expression division of labour refers to all parts of that aggregate of actions by which the life of a society is carried on—the governmental, the militant, the ecclesiastical, the professional, as well as the industrial. But though the expression might fitly be used as equivalent in meaning to specialization of functions, the common acceptation of the word labour—effort expended in production—has narrowed its application. It has come to mean only that specialization of functions which directly or indirectly concerns the fulfilment of material wants, and the making of material aids to mental wants.

The last clause of this definition covers numerous processes not connected in any way with sustentation, or the satisfaction of the lower desires. The maker of a musical instrument, the compositor who helps to manufacture a book, the photographer and the seller of chromo-lithographs, the florist and the street flower-girl, are all of them engaged in producing or distributing material things; but these things have nothing to do with the maintenance of life. There are many classes whose labours minister to instruction and æsthetic gratification; and while the division of labour with which we are here concerned does not contemplate those who by their mental efforts yield the instruction and gratification, it contemplates among others those who subserve Edition: current; Page: [341] the instruction and gratification by furnishing the needful appliances.

Another explanation must be added. Mental and bodily activities are mingled throughout all occupations. When we have excluded the activities of the political, religious, and administrative agencies as well as the activities of the professions, which are all essentially mental, there still remain among mental activities those by which the processes of production and distribution are regulated. The manufacturer with his superior employées, the merchant with his heads of departments and their clerks, are men whose exertions, though not commonly called labours, have to be here included; since they are among the functions of the organization by which production, distribution, and exchange are carried on.

§ 729. Wherever individuals join their actions for a common end that is not absolutely simple, some division of labour spontaneously arises. We see this even in such a transitory incident as a picnic. Immediately a spot for the repast has been decided on, some begin to unpack the hampers, others to collect fern for sitting upon, and presently, while the ladies lay the cloth and arrange the knives and forks, one of the gentlemen fetches water from a spring and another takes down the wine to be cooled in the neighbouring stream. Every one feels that confusion would result if all did the same thing, and without direction they promptly undertake different things.

The necessity of dividing any total work into parts, is, indeed, illustrated in the actions of a single person. Suppose a clerk is set to wrap up, and address, many copies of a pamphlet. If, pursuing an unmethodic course, he first cuts out one piece of wrapping paper, then lays down the knife, takes a pamphlet and folds it up, then seizes the paste-brush and fastens the wrapper, then puts back the brush and, looking at the address-book, dips his pen and writes, it is clear Edition: current; Page: [342] that before he has finished he will have wasted much time and energy in these changes of occupation and changes of implements. If he is business-like he will first cut all the wrappers required, next he will address them all, then arranging a score or more one over another so as to expose the edge of each, he will wet with paste the whole number at once. In succession he will place each pamphlet so as to bring the ready-pasted edge of a wrapper into a fit position, and will turn the pamphlet over and fix it. Finally he will put on the stamps and tie up into parcels. From this individual division of labour to social division of labour the transition is obvious. For if, instead of being performed one after another by a single person, each of these processes is performed by a different person, we have a division of labour as ordinarily understood.

But beyond the immediate advantage gained when an individual divides his work into separate parts, or when a number of individuals divide the separate parts among them, there is, in this last case, a remoter advantage gained of great importance. When each of the cooperating individuals has his powers devoted to one process, he acquires by practice such skill that he executes his portion of the total work far more rapidly and effectually than it can be executed by one who undertakes all the portions.

Carrying with us these illustrations we are now prepared to study the division of labour as naturally arising in a society. There are several determining factors which we will consider in succession.

§ 730. The natural selection of occupations has for its primary cause certain original differences between individuals, partly physical, partly psychical. Let us for brevity’s sake call this the physio-psychological cause.

The most familiar and most marked example is that which accompanies difference of sex. Certain apportionments of occupations, fit respectively for men and women, we find all Edition: current; Page: [343] the world over, up from the earliest stages. Though by no means uniform, and presenting remarkable exceptions, yet they have usually a common character, determined partly by the relative capacities and incapacities of the sexes, and in rude societies determined partly by the ability of the males to force on the females the least desirable occupations. Without implying that savage men are morally inferior to savage women (the last show just as much cruelty as the first where opportunity allows) it is clear that among people who are selfish in extreme degrees the stronger will ill-treat the weaker; and that besides other forms of ill-treatment will be that of imposing on them all the disagreeable tasks they are able to perform. As typical of the division of labour among the lowest races, may be taken that among the Fuegians. While the men fight, hunt, and procure the larger kinds of food,—

And a similar general contrast holds among the Andaman Islanders, Tasmanians, Australians.

Hunting tribes of higher types show us kindred apportionments of work: instance the Dakotas, Chippewayans, Comanches, Chippewas. While the men fight, hunt, fish, and undertake such occasional labour as requires strength and skill—building houses and making canoes—to the women is deputed all drudgery not beyond their strength; and where, as among the Iroquois, a life partly agricultural is led, women do all the farm-work. One striking contrast, dependent on the modes of life, must be re-named. As pointed out in § 326, where, as among Chinooks, the occupations are such that sustentation is equally within the powers of both sexes, women have a quite different status, and are treated with due consideration.

The uncivilized peoples of South America present facts of a generally similar kind, made slightly different only by the greater extent to which an agricultural life has been adopted. Of Brazilian and Guiana tribes, Caribs, Uaupés, we read that the men when not at war, or catching animals, take for their labour only the clearing of the ground from trees, &c., leaving women to do the cultivation. A like general relation is found among African peoples. The males of Hottentots and Damaras, in addition to hunting and fighting, tend the cattle, but depute everything else to the females: even the building of huts. It is much the same with the Bechuanas and Kaffirs. On passing to the northern negro societies—the East Africans, Congo people, Coast negroes, Inland negroes—who have become in large measure agricultural, we find a greater share of labour taken by the men. They build, join in plantation work, doing the heavier part; and, having developed various special trades—carpenter, smith, leather-worker, weaver—are many of them devoted to these. In Ashanti and Dahomey, this assumption by men of special businesses and entailed labours is still more marked. The Fulahs, who are of a higher type, and in whose lives hunting occupies but a small space, show us a much nearer approach to the civilized division of labour between the sexes. Women’s work in addition to domestic duties includes little else than trading, while men attend to cattle and farming. Among the Abyssinians the state of things is somewhat similar.

Anomalies here and there occur which were exemplified in § 326, but passing over these aberrant customs, we have to notice only one further general fact which, though before named and exemplified, I recall because it is specially instructive.

Peoples unallied in race and living in regions remote from one another, show us that where exceptional conditions have made possible a perfectly peaceful life, and where the men are no longer occupied in war and the chase, the division of Edition: current; Page: [345] labour between the sexes becomes humane in its character: the men do the heavy, outdoor work, and the women the light, indoor work. When treating of Domestic Institutions this contrast was indicated (§§ 327-9). In the Bodo and Dhimáls tribes, while the men clear the fields, till the ground, make the houses—

Similarly of another hill-tribe, the peaceful Santals, we read—

Of the Todas, too, equally unwarlike, the same is said by Shortt. The wives “are left at home to perform what European wives consider their legitimate share of duty, and do not even step out of doors to fetch water or wood.” So is it too with a remote people, the Pueblos of North America, who “wall out black barbarism” by the structure of their compound village-dwellings, and who lead purely agricultural lives. Says Morgan:—“It is now the rule among the Village-Indians for the men to assume the heavy work, which was doubtless the case when this pueblo was constructed.”

These striking contrasts exhibited by the uncivilized, remind us that kindred contrasts exist among the civilized. Where, as in Germany and France, the militant organization is highly developed, the outdoor labor which falls upon women is heavy and constant, while in England and America, less militant in their types of organization, it is small in amount and light in kind.

Manifestly these contrasts arise inevitably. While the Edition: current; Page: [346] energies of men are mainly directed to killing enemies and game, labours of other kinds must mainly devolve on women; and, conversely, where men are not thus drafted off for fighting and hunting, pressure of population by and by forces them to become producers and assume the heavier work.

§ 731. Psycho-physical differences other than those of sex have, especially in early and in late times, appreciable effects in apportioning functions.

Even of the Fuegians, low as they are, Fitzroy tells us:—

So, too, of the Hudson’s Bay Indians we read:—“Many persons have not the skill needed to construct a canoe, and they employ those who have had experience and are known to build an excellent boat.” And similarly of the adjacent Eskimo, the same writer says “some women excel in boot-making, and at some seasons do nothing but make boots, while the others in return prepare the other garments.” Of the Malagasy Ellis writes that, while all remained in a measure agricultural and pastoral, yet numbers devoted themselves “to one particular employment, in which they excelled.”

That among the fully-civilized there are in like manner specializations of function caused by natural aptitudes, needs no showing: professions and crafts are often thus determined. During intermediate stages, in which men’s occupations are regulated by castes and gilds, individuals are restrained from following their natural bents. Nevertheless the special businesses carried on by organized groups, generation after generation, probably began with ancestors having special aptitudes; and in some measure by inheritance, but in greater measure by culture, there was established some psycho-physical adaptation. Concerning the Hindus, Edition: current; Page: [347] Dutt furnishes an illustrative fact:—“The Aryan Vaisyas followed different trades and professions in Ancient India, without forming separate castes; they were scribes and physicians, goldsmiths and blacksmiths, &c:” all these occupations of relatively skilled kinds having fallen into the hands of the most intelligent.

Beyond assumptions of certain industries by individuals having natural aptitudes for them, there are sometimes kindred assumptions by entire sections of a society. Garcilasso, writing about Peru, says that—

And Cieza tells us, concerning a division of the same people, that the Canches are “always skilful in working, especially gold and silver.” Local specializations of industry, similarly caused, exist in the Fiji Islands. Some of them “are famous for such things as wooden trenchers, paddles, canoes, &c., others for tapa, sinnet, mats, baskets, &c.; and others for pots, fishing nets, turmeric, and ‘loa’ (lamp-black).”

There may be added, as of like nature, those larger specializations of function which arise between nations. These are exemplified by the aptitude of the English people for a maritime life.

Next to be noted among the divisions of labour due to psycho-physical characters, comes the relegation of inferior occupations to servile classes. This sometimes begins apart from coercion. Concerning certain of the Japanese, who kill and flay horses, Adams writes:—

That incapacity for higher work led to this specialization, is a belief we shall readily accept on remembering that among ourselves the class of “night-men,” still extant I suppose in some places, must have been formed of the inferior; since only those who could not otherwise maintain themselves would adopt so disgusting a business. Of course, the servile classes have been formed mainly of captives and their descendants; and since, in the average of cases, conquered peoples have been in some way or other inferior to their conquerors, we may consider the division of labour between the slave-classes and the ruling classes as having a psycho-physical origin. It was probably thus with the helots of Sparta, and it has certainly been thus with the heathen Negro peoples who have been, during so many generations, kidnapped by their Christian masters. But this is not a universal relation; for the superior are sometimes conquered by the more numerous or more savage inferior. Something of the kind happened in Mexico, where the civilized Toltecs were overrun by the barbarous Chechemecas and Aztecs, who, becoming the rulers, doubtless forced the better men to perform the worse functions. But the clearest cases are furnished by Greece and Rome. Victories in their wars depended on other causes than mental or physical superiorities. Says Grote of the Greeks—“Slavery was a calamity, which in that period of insecurity might befall anyone.” How little, among the Romans, slavery implied a lower nature, is proved by various facts cited in the last division of this work, dealing with the professions; and is again proved by the following passage from Mommsen.

Hence, concerning the psycho-physical factor in the division of labour, we must say that when allowed free scope it produces beneficial specializations, but that its effects are so traversed by the effects of other factors that little which is definite can be said about its share in organizing industry.

§ 732. Much more definite results may be rightly ascribed to the character of the environment. These we will contemplate under the head of the topical division of labour.

In quite rude societies differentiations caused by surrounding circumstances begin. There are “two branches of the Ostiaks, the hunters and the fishers:” the last living on the banks of the Obi, and the others elsewhere. Manifestly sea-fishing is determined even in undeveloped communities by proximity, and originates settled industries. Thus “many of the [Society] islanders are fishermen by profession.” Other such natural necessities influence the slightly civilized as well as the civilized. Among the Chibchas “the Poyras [or Yapotoges, on the banks of the Neyba] were great miners, as in their country there were many veins of gold.” In Mexico—

So, too, in Peru—

Of ancient peoples, the Phœnicians may be named as furnishing an example.

To this case may be added that of Venice, where good water communication, joined with inaccessibility to enemies unacquainted with the channels of approach, gave an advantage for mercantile development.

Already in the second part of this work, illustrations of kindred character furnished by our own country have been given. A few others reinforcing them may here be added. Domesday Book shows that—

The making of woollen fabrics began in “the counties which produced the best wool, and, in the imperfect state of the means of communication, the manufacture naturally became located within reach of the raw material.” But when roads improved, the greater facilities which Yorkshire afforded caused migration, and that became the chief cloth-district.

Cheapness of power, here obtained from coal and there from water, has, indeed, been a potent cause of this topical division of labour. After 1769—

The environing influences which thus initiate differentiations among the parts of the social organism, are often irresistible. It needs but to ask what would result from the attempt to grow wheat on Scotch mountain sides, where sheep-farming is carried on, or to transfer the getting of tin from Cornwall to Lincolnshire, to see how necessarily some topical divisions of labour arise.

§ 733. To use for the next division of the subject the title local division of labour seems absurd, since a topical division is a local division. The word “local,” however, as here to be employed, refers to the division of labour within the same locality; whereas “topical” refers to division of labour between different localities. There seems no fit word available for marking this distinction, and I feel obliged to use the word local in the sense named.

Already, when enumerating the separate duties undertaken by men and women in various places, there has been an indication of the truth that local division of labour originates among the members of each household. As Bogle says of the people of Bhutan, “every family is acquainted with most of the useful arts, and contains within itself almost all the necessaries of life.” And this state generally characterizes early stages.

The transition to a more differentiated state is first shown by the rise of some who practise one or other art with greater skill than usual. Writing about Negroes, Duff Macdonald says that near Blantyre “the worker-in-wood has hardly a distinct trade. Nearly every man does his own wood-work.” But partial division of labour is shown among these people in other ways. The same writer tells us that—

And he also says that the blacksmith “does not live so exclusively by his trade that he can neglect his farm.” Edition: current; Page: [352] Somewhat more advanced is the specialization implied in the case of Tahiti.

Such first steps are obviously inevitable. Always there will be some having special aptitudes for particular arts; always it will happen that the amount of work given them as pursuers of such arts will at the outset not suffice to yield them livelihoods without carrying on as well the ordinary occupation; and always it will happen that in proportion as population grows and the demands on them increase, it will become possible and advantageous to devote themselves exclusively to such arts.

Other things equal, the extent to which local division of labour is carried is determined by the degree of isolation of the group—isolation caused now by distance from other groups, now by enmity with other groups, and now by both. Economic independence was well illustrated in mediæval days by the monasteries. Says Dr. Jessopp:—

Industrial autonomy was similarly exemplified in those times by feudal territories and residences. In France at the end of the ninth century, as a result of nascent feudalism and isolation of the seigneuries, distribution of commodities was arrested: “every one made for himself, or had made for him by his people, clothes . . . and arms.” And during the early feudal period up to 1190—

In those days of universal antagonism, it was requisite for each group to be self-sufficing. The danger of being “dependent on the foreigner,” so continually urged during our Free-trade agitation, was a danger which in feudal days existed within each nation, and made it needful for every division to be a complete society.

On local groups of other kinds relative isolation had in early days the same effect. Speaking of the 12th century, Prof. Cunningham says:—

At the same time towns were comparatively independent of villages. As says Prof. Cunningham in continuation:—

Obviously, indeed, as towns were at first only larger villages, this relation necessarily held. Within each there existed more differentiation because they had not been rendered mutually dependent by differentiation from one another.

The extent to which local division of labour goes is in large part determined by the size of the group. Where there are but twenty persons there cannot be thirty trades. Another pre-requisite is that the number in the group shall be such that the demand falling upon each kind of worker will duly cultivate his skill and pay for the appliances which give him a superiority: other members of the group will else find no advantage in employing him. In the third place the amount of his business must be such as to yield him a Edition: current; Page: [354] livelihood; and in a small group this negatives various kinds of occupations. So that there is a three-fold cause for the limited division of labour when the group contains but few, and for multiplication of occupations along with increase in its number: the group becomes more heterogeneous as it becomes larger. This truth we see illustrated throughout all stages of social evolution. As compared with occupations in small tribes the occupations in populous Negro societies of Africa are numerous; and a like multiplicity of trades exists among the Fijians, Sandwich Islanders, Tahitians, Tongans and Samoans. Ancient societies furnish abundant evidence. The fertility of the Nile Valley having made possible a large population, businesses had become numerous.

The like happened in Greece; and a resulting contrast in the division of labour in small and large places, was recognized by Xenophon.

From ancient Rome comes proof of a kindred difference between the industrial arrangements of early and late times. Says Mommsen:—

But in late times instead of eight specialized trades there are enumerated sixty, mostly carried on by Greeks. Coming down to modern nations it will suffice to name France, where in the early feudal period (11th and 12th centuries) 76 occupations were enumerated, whereas at the end of the 16th century the number had risen to 170.

The local division of labour subserves the topical division of labour. Any large section of the community favourably circumstanced for carrying on a particular industry, can devote itself to that industry only on condition that there shall be joined with it a cluster of workers and traders who satisfy the wants of those devoted to this particular industry. If Sheffield fashions knives, Lancashire weaves cottons, Yorkshire manufactures woollens, there requires in each case a local development of the various trades and professions which minister to the artisans, &c., who make hardware, calicoes, or woollens.

And here let us observe an instructive parallel between the sociological division of labour and the physiological division of labour. Already in Part II, “The Inductions of Sociology” (§§ 216-19), various parallels have been named, Edition: current; Page: [356] and here is another. For in the individual body as in the body politic, the condition under which alone any organ can devote itself to its special function, is that it shall be permeated by systems of sustaining, depurating, and stimulating appliances. Be it a muscle or nerve-centre, be it the lungs or intestines, be it the liver, the kidneys, or the pancreas, there ramifies throughout it a set of arteries, arterioles, capillaries, a set of smaller and larger veins, a set of absorbents, a set of nerve-fibres, and a general framework of connective tissue keeping its components in place. That the groups of nerve-cells or bile-cells or kidney-cells should perform their parts in the topical division of labour, they must all have, ramifying through them, the various agencies for carrying on nutrition, for supplying material to be operated on, for carrying away products, and for stimulation.

§ 734. We have contemplated the topical division of labour and the local division of labour. There remains the detailed division of labour—that which arises within each producing or distributing establishment. This it is which we commonly think of when the phrase is used.

Specializations thus distinguished make their appearance in comparatively early stages. Says Burton in his Abeokuta:—

The growth of that division of labour which ends in producing a commodity, our own early history sufficiently illustrates. In the middle of the 16th century—

And how these subdivisions gradually multiply is shown in the fact that even fifty years ago the classes of operatives engaged in the woollen manufacture had increased from the twelve above named to double that number.

But no adequate conception of this detailed division of labour can be formed so long as we contemplate only the manual labourers, and leave out of sight the mental labourers who direct them. In an undeveloped industry the maker of a commodity is at once brain-worker and hand-worker; but in a developed industry brain-work and hand-work have separated, and while hand-work has become greatly sub-divided, brain-work also has become greatly sub-divided. Here, as given to me by a friend who is partner in a manufacturing establishment at Birmingham, is a sketch of its organization. In the regulative division the first class includes only the heads of the firm, of whom one is chief. In the next class stand the engineering superior, works manager, head of estimate department, head of cash department, head of finished warehouse. Then comes the third class of brain-workers, who are women—invoice clerk, storekeeper, and assistant in cash department. Next are two intermediaries between head and hands—foreman of casting department and foreman-fitter or engineering mechanic, who both have subordinates aiding in their functions. From these regulative classes we descend to the operative classes; and of these there are eleven kinds in the first grade, nine kinds in the second grade, and seven kinds in the third grade. Thus there are eight kinds of brain-workers, four kinds of half-brain and half hand-workers, and twenty-seven kinds of hand-workers.

Limiting our further attention to the operative parts of industrial establishments, we may fitly distinguish between Edition: current; Page: [358] two leading forms of the division of labour exhibited in them—the simultaneous and the successive. There are cases in which the different parts of some ultimate product are being at the same time formed by different groups of artisans, to be afterwards joined together by yet other artisans; and there are cases in which the ultimate product passes from hand to hand through a series of operatives, each of whom works upon it his or her particular modification. Let us look at an example of each kind.

The superintendent of the Midland Railway works at Derby, has furnished me with an account of the different classes of men engaged in producing the component parts of locomotive engines. It is needless to give their names and special functions. The fact which here concerns us is that the classes number nearly forty, and, if the different kinds of fitting be counted, about fifty: all their various products being finally put together by the erector and his aids.

Of the serial division of labour a good instance comes from a large establishment for the manufacture of biscuits. To begin with there is a department for the reception and storage of raw materials. Weighing out the proportions of ingredients for any particular kind of biscuit, is the first process. Next comes the mixing mill, into which attendants pour these ingredients. From this emerges the prepared dough, which, passing into the rolling-presses, comes out in sheets of the proper thickness. Out of these the stamping machines cut out biscuits of the desired sizes and shapes, and deliver them on to trays. These trays, placed in the mouths of vast ovens and slowly carried through them on horizontal revolving bands, are delivered at the other side duly baked. Carried then by a mechanical apparatus to the sorting-room the classed biscuits are thence transferred to those who pack. Finally comes labeling and stamping the boxes.

Again we are shown how close are the analogies between the sociological division of labour and the physiological division Edition: current; Page: [359] of labour. Beyond the fact that, as in the social organism so in the individual organism, there are regulative parts and operative parts—the nervous organs and the various other organs—we have the fact that among these organs there is both a simultaneous and a serial division of labour. While we see bones, muscles, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, &c., carrying on their respective functions at the same time, we see the parts of the alimentary canal performing their functions one after another. There come in succession mastication, insalivation, deglutition, trituration, chymification, chylification, and eventually absorption by the lacteals.

And here indeed it is curious to remark a unique case in which two sets of sociological divisions of labour of the serial kind, are joined to this physiological series of divisions of labour. We have first the ploughing, harrowing, sowing, reaping, carting, threshing, hauling to market, transfer to corn-factor’s stores, removal thence to be ground, and final carriage of the flour to the bakers; where, also, certain serial processes are gone through in making loaves, or, if we follow that part of the flour from which biscuits are made, we see that there are linked together the processes above described. Finally, in one who eats of the loaves or the biscuits, there occurs the physiological series of divisions of labour. So that from the ploughing to the absorption of nutriment, three series of divisions of labour become, in a sense, parts of a united series.

§ 735. One more section must be added. Conformity to the general law of evolution has been noted in several places. Here, going behind that redistribution of matter and motion which universally constitutes Evolution, let us observe how, in the industrial world, there is everywhere exemplified the law that motion is along the line of least resistance or the line of greatest traction or the resultant of the two.

The growth of a society as a whole takes place most over regions where the obstacles to be overcome are least. Along Edition: current; Page: [360] one frontier hostile tribes exist, while in another direction there are no enemies; hence population spreads there. On this side lies a fertile tract while on that a barren tract lies; and the resistances to living being in these directions relatively great or relatively small, the social mass increases where it is relatively small. Again, one part of the habitat is malarious while another is salubrious, and the lower rate of mortality in the last determines multiplication of the inhabitants there.

The topical division of labour presents us with kindred causes and results. Sea-side people, close to a store of food, find it easier to subsist by getting this out of the water than by going inland to compete with those who plough; and if fish are plentiful and the inland demand great, the fishing population grows. So with wheat-growing and sheep-farming: the nature of each district renders it easier for its inhabitants to subsist by one of these than by the other, and their efforts follow the lines of least resistance. When, in any region, there has taken place that adaptation of nature which the appropriate occupation produces, there is resistance to alteration of function; as, for example, there would be if the body of Lancashire weavers had to become coal-miners. Even a change in the topical division of labour, such as migration of most of the woollen manufacture from Gloucestershire to Yorkshire, illustrates the same influence; since, by the proximity to a wool-importing place, and by the presence of abundant coal, serving as a better source of power than water, the resistance to the production of cloth as measured in cost of freight, labour, and fuel (severally representing so much human effort) is less than it was in the original seat of the industry.

In the local division of labour, analogous causes operate and work analogous effects. As political economists have pointed out, each choice of a business is determined by the totality of incentives and deterrents, and the business chosen is that which offers the least resistance to the gratification Edition: current; Page: [361] of the totality of desires. So, too, is it on passing from producer to consumer. If in a village the labourer’s wife buys bread from a baker, it is because the difficulties to be overcome in the home-production of bread, render the resistance to that course greater that those resistances to the course chosen which are represented by extra cost; and if the farmer, ceasing to make his own beer, buys of a local brewer, it is again because in the average of cases the expenditure of effort has by modern conditions been rendered smaller in the last way than in the first.

Nor is it only in such elaborations of the division of labour, and developments of correlative social structures, that we see movement along lines of least resistance. We see it also in the activities of these structures. The law of supply and demand, implying streams of commodities from places where they are abundant to places where they are deficient, and a consequent balancing, is a corollary of this same law. For since money everywhere represents labour, buying in the cheapest market is satisfying a want with the least expenditure of labour; and selling in the dearest market and so getting the largest amount of this representative of labour, diminishes the labour afterwards required.