1902.] KEASBEY — A CLASSIFICATION OF ECONOMIES. 147 



wherever the essential weal relation is established between life and 

 the environment, there the process of utilization is operative. In 

 its widest extension, therefore, the term economy can be applied 

 over the whole range of evolution, from the lowest to the highest 

 orders of animate existence. Furthermore, cursory comparison 

 shows that with the developm.ent of life the process of utilization 

 becomes more and more complicated. Thus, regarded from the 

 utilitarian point of view, evolution exhibits a succession of econo- 

 mies increasing in complexity. 



It is out of the question, of course, to elaborate this long series 

 in detail. As a matter of fact, no hard and fast distinctions can be 

 established between the several orders of economies, since in each 

 instance the more complex proceed, as it were, by insensible steps 

 out of the simpler, leaving no appreciable spaces between through 

 which lines of demarcation may be drawn. Nevertheless, if we 

 confine ourselves to generalities and content ourselves with obvious 

 distinctions, it is possible to establish the general order of economic 

 development and characterize the several types of economies. 



For convenience' sake biologists still distinguish between plant 

 life, animal life and human life, what though they are well aware 

 that the laws of organic evolution to which the three orders of life 

 are subjected are essentially the same. It is possible to establish 

 a corresponding series in the order of economic development, but 

 we must not lose sight of the fact that the differences to be noted 

 are merely differences of degree and in no sense distinctions in 

 kind. This, then, is the primary purpose of the present paper : to 

 indicate the types of economies characteristic of plant life, animal 

 life and human life respectively. It will be seen, when this series is 

 established, that the human economy differs far more from the 

 economies of the lower orders of life, than the economies of plant 

 and animal life differ from each other. Though evidently an elabo- 

 ration of the preceding types, the human economy is in certain 

 respects so different as practically to constitute a separate system. 

 Having shown this, to be the case, I shall devote the remaining por- 

 tion of my paper to establishing the human economy upon its 

 higher plane. 



In the first place, in order to establish the required series of 

 economies, it is necessary to adopt a canon of distinction. To this 

 end I would suggest that characteristic types of economies can be 

 distinguished from each other in two ways : subjectively, according 



