204 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



abundant that everybody can have all he wants, and there is 

 therefore no occasion for economizing with respect to them. It 

 will readily occur to any one that the same thing may be an 

 economic good in one time or place and a noneconomic good 

 in another, depending upon its relative scarcity or abundance. 

 Economic goods, or goods which are scarce, are the objects of 

 all economic activity, of economizing, saving, storing, and 

 exchanging. They are the things we labor to produce ; they are 

 the objects for which the whole economic system has been de- 

 veloped ; they alone have value or power in exchange, for the 

 simple reason that no one exchanges for a thing unless it is 

 scarce, that is, unless he has less of it than he wants. All other 

 goods the economist ignores, as we all do so far as our efforts 

 to get a living are concerned. 



Producers' and consumers' goods. Some of these economic 

 goods yield their utilities directly to their users or consumers, 

 whereas others yield their utilities or satisfy wants only in- 

 directly, through the medium of other goods. A loaf of bread 

 is an illustration of the former, which are called consumers' 

 goods ; and a plow of the latter, which are called producers' 

 goods. In other words, consumers' goods are goods used for 

 direct consumption or the direct satisfaction of wants ; whereas 

 producers' goods are used for the production of other goods, or 

 for the indirect satisfaction of wants through the medium of the 

 other goods which they help to produce. Some goods may, 

 however, be producers' goods at one time and consumers' 

 goods at another, or partly one* and partly the other at the 

 same time. The farmer's driving team, for example, may be 

 used as a help in his business and also for pleasure driving, 

 or the musician's instrument may be used to make a living and 

 also to please himself. 



What is capital. All producers' goods except land are com- 

 monly called capital. They are used for the purpose of securing 



