292 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fields all classes profiting by the economy incident to production 

 in the especially favored localities. 



With increasing demand for all kinds of products, men of 

 shrewdness to see and ability to grasp larger opportunities enlisted 

 to a greater extent the co-operation of others by the payment of 

 wages or the forming of partnerships. Such co-ordination afforded 

 means for securing in a greater degree the advantages gained by 

 the simpler combinations. For, as the artisan devoting his time 

 to one kind of work tended to acquire the skill, appliances, and 

 the material best adapted thereto ; as, under the simplest combi- 

 nation an organization of two men these advantages were 

 heightened ; he who on a larger scale directed the efforts of others 

 could, by careful training, develop further increase of skill, could 

 because of a larger revenue afford to secure appliances increasing 

 in number and cost, could procure greater quantities of the best 

 adapted material at a decreasing price, and could devote greater 

 energy to multiplying the consumption of his products by increas- 

 ing their sale in old and extending their use in new markets. And 

 these factors, stimulated by competition, all tend toward economy 

 of production, to the serving of a community increasing both 

 in extent and population with better articles at less expense. 

 Contributing to this result was not only the economy in the im- 

 mediate production of articles for immediate personal use and 

 consumption, but the economy in the production of material and 

 appliances used in the production of these articles. 



With industrial combination and recombination an increase 

 of capital is required for the maintenance of the larger sphere of 

 operation. Such capital necessarily is obtained from the accumu- 

 lation of those directly in conduct of the operations or from the 

 accumulation of others. The first artisans, as a rule, doubtless 

 obtained by their own exertions the few rude tools and appliances 

 used in their vocations, but in the succeeding combinations funds 

 are contributed by partners, one or more of whom may not be 

 directly or actively engaged in the conduct of the business, in 

 which case the active partner or partners, while benefiting by the 

 use of the contributed capital themselves, also assume a trust, in 

 the ethical sense of the word, for the benefit of the others. Or 

 included in the capital may be the funds of widows and minors, 

 which those in the active conduct of the business therefore hold 

 in trust. When the field of operations so extends as to neces- 

 sitate plant and appliances more extensive than can be provided 

 except by contributions from the accumulations of a considerable 

 number of persons, there arises a new form of organization the 

 corporation. The ownership of the various contributions to the 

 capital fund is vouched by certificates of stock. The corporation, 

 therefore, benefits the community as a whole, in that it commands 



