CHAPTER IIL 



ACQUISITION AND PRODUCTION. 



736. NEITHER of these words suffices alone to cover the 

 phenomena to be here treated of. From those early stages 

 in which men subsist on the wild products their habitat 

 yields, they progress to the stages in which the things they 

 need, though produced by their habitat, are so produced 

 only with the aid of labour ; and it is this inclusion of labour 

 as a chief factor which constitutes production, in contrast 

 with simple acquisition. 



The most conspicuous illustration is furnished by mining. 

 Coal, ironstone, or copper ore, lies ready, and strictly speak 

 ing getting it comes under the head of acquisition ; but be 

 cause the required labour is great, we class coal-mining 

 under the head of production. Again, fishermen simply 

 appropriate what Nature furnishes in the adjacent seas; but 

 as the catching fish by nets or otherwise is a laborious occupa 

 tion, we regard fish as products of an industry. 



Under one of its most general aspects, human progress is 

 measured by the degree in which simple acquisition is re 

 placed by production ; achieved first by manual power, then 

 by animal-power, and finally by machine-power. 



737. The transition is slow because among other re 

 quirements human nature has to be re-moulded, and the 



re-moulding cannot be done quickly. To the evidence 



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