CHAPTER VI. 



AUXILIARY DISTRIBUTION. 



749. THE greater part of the process commonly called 

 &quot; distribution/ is that which we here distinguish as auxiliary 

 distribution. In our developed industrial system, intermedi 

 ate agencies bring producers and consumers into relation; 

 and these agencies, at first very simple, become gradually 

 complex. 



As the producer, properly so called, came into existence 

 when, instead of making a thing for himself only, a man was 

 led to make it for himself and some others, and by and by to 

 make it exclusively for others, in that way creating a special 

 occupation ; so the distributor insensibly arose when, instead 

 of selling only things he himself produced, a man began to 

 sell in addition some things which others had produced, and, 

 eventually increasing the number and quantity of these, was 

 occupied solely in selling them. The first stages in this pro 

 cess, naturally unrecorded, may be inferred from parallel 

 stages frequently visible among ourselves. To obtain good 

 and cheap butter, eggs, and poultry, residents in towns 

 sometimes arrange \vith a farmer to send periodical supplies 

 of them. The success of this plan is made known, and the 

 farmer is written to by others for like supplies. Presently 

 demands on him so increase that his own productions prove, 

 insufficient to meet them; and then, anxious to retain the 

 business, he buys from neighbours the additional quantities 



required. If the quality of the commodities continues to be 



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