THE MEANING OF CORPORATIONS AND TRUSTS. 291 



a carpenter to make a specialty of house-building ; as furniture 

 was needed, another carpenter devoted his time to making chairs 

 and tables. Likewise the weaver differentiated into the maker of 

 carpets and the maker of cloths for wear ; and as the village 

 grew there evolved the tinner, the harness-maker, and so on. The 

 followers of each vocation thrived because the members of the 

 community found it more economical to purchase their better 

 products than to make similar articles themselves. This differen- 

 tiation or diversification of industries heightened the contrast 

 between the life of the community and barbarism, or, in other 

 words, increased the degree of its civilization because, by reason 

 of the particular skill, training, and facilities of the various indi- 

 viduals who ministered to their various wants, the members of 

 the community became better housed, better clothed, better sup- 

 plied with the conveniences that contributed to the more rapid 

 and efficient performance of their work and to the comfort of 

 their homes. 



The demand for a particular kind of work brought an increase 

 in the number of individuals engaged in that work by causing an 

 established artisan to increase the number of his employees, or by 

 bringing an increasing number of men into that line of industry, 

 some of whom continued to work separately, the direct servants 

 of their patrons, while others formed other organizations of em- 

 ployer and employee or employees. And thus arose competition, 

 members of a community patronizing this or that tradesman or 

 artisan in preference to another as the quality of his work or 

 merchandise, his prices or accessibility, were the more suitable. 

 Competition tended to secure to the members of a community a 

 share of the benefit of the decreasing cost of production, different 

 producers vying with each other to retain or increase their custom 

 either by bettering the quality of their articles or decreasing the 

 price, or both. With increasing ease of communication there was 

 increased competition, artisans, in the course of their work, going 

 more readily from one place to another, and merchantable articles 

 were distributed throughout an extending territory. 



With increasing ease of communication and transportation 

 the localization of production was also affected. While many 

 kinds of production remained tolerably evenly diffused over exten- 

 sive areas, that which depended upon extremely favorable condi- 

 tions tended to concentrate at localities so favored. For example, 

 in soil especially adapted for grazing, a farmer ceased to plant 

 wheat when he could obtain the wheat more cheaply by purchase 

 from a distant farmer, to whom he could sell the flesh and hides 

 of cattle raised on his meadows. And workmen engaged in pre- 

 paring the products of cattle tended to concentrate near the graz- 

 ing regions, while millers would erect their mills near the wheat 



