CHAPTEE V. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



745. DISTRIBUTION is a necessary concomitant of di 

 vision of labour. The condition under which alone men can 

 devote themselves to different occupations, is that there 

 shall be transference from one to another of their respective 

 products. 



This transference, which originally takes place directly 

 between producer and consumer, assumes from the outset 

 two forms. The consumer applies to the producer for some 

 of his surplus; or the producer brings his surplus to the 

 notice of the consumer, in the hope of parting with it and 

 receiving some equivalent. These alternative courses are 

 variously illustrated at home and abroad. Says O Dono- 

 van, describing the people of Merv: 



u ln a European mart one would expect the sellers to cry out their 

 wares, but at Merv it is the contrary. A man goes along the row of 

 booths [in the bazaar] shouting, I want six eggs, or * I want two 

 fowls. . . . No dealer ever takes the trouble to put his goods en evi 

 dence.&quot; 



Though to us this proceeding seems strange, yet as our own 

 purchases in shops begin by asking for this or that article, 

 the two usages differ only in the respect that the want is in 

 the one case expressed out-of-doors and in the other in-doors. 



The converse process daily goes on around. Street-traders, 

 from the costermonger to the newsboy, exemplify that form 

 of distribution in which the seller offers while the buyer 



responds; and in various parts of London on Saturday 



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