of Edinburgh, Session 1883-84. 
953 
the stages of development is conveniently termed mediate products ; 
and thus we have an exhaustive classification of all products what- 
ever in its most generalised form. Finally, much premature dissi- 
pation and disintegration, termed loss, may occur at all stages of 
development and must he estimated for."^ {Op. cit., pp. 13 and 14.) 
As has been already shown, such a table includes not only an 
account of the processes of transport and exchange, but of the 
facts of the equally relevant though less investigated subjects of 
exploitation and manufacture, commonly grouped under technology. 
The standpoint being thus sufficiently explained, and the stages 
of production defined, it is obvious that our physical standpoint 
enables and compels us to inquire into their details. Were this an 
exhaustive treatise on physical economics, it should commence with 
a minute statistical survey of the sources of energy and of the pro- 
cesses of exploitation — agriculture, fisheries, mines, &c. It should 
include not only the classical quotations from Smith on pin-making 
and Babbage on the economy of manufactures, but a thorough 
survey of manufactures and of the vast ap- 
pliances of modern transport by land and 
sea; it should summarise those investiga- 
tions upon the phenomena of exchange, 
upon which so many economists entirely 
specialise themselves ; it should also esti- 
mate the loss at all stages preceding con- 
sumption ; at every stage, too, it should 
consider the mediate products and the pro- 
ducer-automata employed; and, finally, it 
should classify and estimate the ultimate 
products. 
So far, our knowledge would be confined 
to a given place and time; but such statistics 
should be sought for all other places and 
times, these statistics piled up into history, and this history genera- 
lised and compared. Thus, we should investigate such a hypo- 
thetical graphic statistic as the accompanying ; aim at approximately 
comparing, that is to say, the relative income of matter and energy 
* These considerations are more fully developed in the Classification of 
Statistics, pp. 13, 14. 
3 T 
PRODUCTION DURING 
AGE OF ENERGY. 
- OF IRON. 
— OF BRONZE. 
— OF STONE. 
Fig. 1. 
VOL. XII. 
