148 KEASBEY — A CLASSIFICATION OF ECONOMIES. [Aprils, 



to the incentive leading to utilization ; and, objectively, according 

 to the means employed in the process. 



Applying this canon of distinction in the first place to the sim- 

 pler systems of activities, it is possible to establish two types of 

 economies — the automatic and the instinctive — characteristic 

 respectively of the plant and animal worlds. 



Under the automatic system the stimulus inciting utilization is in- 

 voluntary, and as this is the case, the means employed in the pro- 

 cess are necessarily natural organs that act without the intervention 

 of the will. Thus plants, for example, as well as some of the lower 

 orders of animals, assimilate the life-sustaining elements inherent in 

 their immediate environment by simple reflex action, involving no 

 conscious effort on their part. 



Under the instinctive system, on the other hand, the impulse 

 leading to utilization is voluntary, and as this is the case, the means 

 employed in the process consist for the most part of natural organs 

 that act in obedience to the will. Thus, as opposed to plants, ani- 

 mals may be said to be urged by their appetites to utilize natural 

 resources. It is instinct in their case that induces economic activity. 

 That is to say, the higher animals as a rule are impelled by their 

 natural desires of self and kind preservation to acquire such pro- 

 ducts of their local environment as go to gratify their own appetites 

 and provide for the preservation of their progeny. And as nature 

 has provided them for the most part with the natural organs neces- 

 sary to gratify their desires, little or no ingenuity is necessary to 

 this end. 



The most complicated economy is that characteristic of human 

 life. In contradistinction to the foregoing, this highly complex 

 system may be designated as the rational economy. Right early 

 in the course of their development, human beings appear to have 

 become imbued with an intelligent purpose to meliorate their mate- 

 rial condition and so raise the standard of life of themselves and 

 their associates. And not being physically equipped by nature to 

 realize their economic ideals, far back in the course of their career 

 they began to exercise ingenuity in the manufacture of artificial 

 instruments of utilization. Thus, to distinguish the human economy 

 from that characteristic of the animal orders, it may be said: under 

 the rational system the motive making for utilization is purposive, 

 and the means employed in the process consist for the most part of 

 artificial implements manufactured for the purpose. 



