6'. E. DUTTON— ECONOMICS OF CONCENTRATED CAPITAL. 11 
or purposes were conspicuously different; being, in short, plunder on a 
grand scale, and not profit. Fortunately, these have been few. They 
should be regarded though as special cases, and should be fully dis- 
tinguished from the organizations to which the name of trust is ordi- 
narily applied. Their discussion will be deferred until we reach another 
stage of the subject. 
The name of a trust is, in most cases, justified* because all, or nearly 
all, of them involve under different forms and in varying degree the 
principle of trusteeship. In some it is nothing more than intrusting 
to a central power the regulation of prices in such manner that each 
member, individual or corporate, shall receive the benefit as nearly as 
practicable in proportion to his interest. In others the same or similar 
power is intrusted with the apportionment of the amount of product to 
be put out by each member, but each member preserving otherwise his 
individuality. The total profits are pooled and sub-divided accordingly. 
In some there is a complete mergence of corporate or individual capital 
into one common control, each contributor receiving shares or stock as 
may be agreed upon. Of those which produce commodities for the trade, 
some intrust to the central management the power of regulating the 
profits and prices of all intermediaries, and even to create auxiliary cor- 
porations to distribute their products, but regulating their profits and 
prices in conformity with the control policy. 
IN THE LIGHT OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
These organizations have been for some years the source of much pub- 
lic anxiety, which, as they multiply, becomes more and more tense. Nor 
is this without reason, for their growth involves new economic questions 
gravely affecting the welfare of the community. In examining them it 
will be possible here only to do so in the briefest manner, and to indicate 
<only in outline the economic considerations, which are of primary im- 
portance. 
Political economy may be resolved into two departments. The 
first is analytic, and concerns itself with the investigation of the 
natural and universal laws governing the production of wealth, its ex- 
changes and its final distribution and consumption. Here it is essential 
to note only that in this field it takes no account of moral and ethical 
questions further than to accept morals and ethics as it finds them, and 
it proceeds to formulate its laws and conclusions accordingly. The other 
department is mainly synthetic in which the laws derived from its pri- 
mary analysis are examined in their relations to the general well-being 
of society. Here morals and ethics can no longer be ignored, for in the 
broader applications of the science they constitute great underlying eco- 
nomic forces. 
