Essentials of Economic Theory: As Applied to Modern Problems of Industry and Public PolicyClark, John Bates
General
Essentials of Economic Theory: As Applied to Modern Problems of Industry and Public Policy
Clark, John Bates
Economics
_Industrial Labor._--Industrial labor is the antithesis of protective
labor, and it invariably changes the qualities of material objects in
such a way as to make them useful; that is to say, it directly creates
utilities.[3] These utilities are of different kinds, and the labor
may be classified according to the kind it creates.
[3] The term _create_ is here used in a somewhat loose
sense and does not imply that the man originates matter or
even that he always transforms it without calling in, as an
aid, the forces of nature. The farmer must depend on vital
forces in soil and air in order to raise a crop. What he and
other laborers do is to cause the product in some way to come
into existence, and he and they may in this sense be said to
create the products which would not appear without them.
_Elementary Utility._--An elementary utility is created when a
substance is either dug out of the ground, as is done in mining, or
when it is secured through the vital forces of the earth, as is done
in agriculture. Hunting, fishing, and stock raising should be classed
with agriculture, since they use the resources of animate nature to
secure for mankind new raw products on which labor will confer further
useful qualities. This utility has to be created by men in every stage
of industrial development, from that of a tropical savage to that of
men in the most advanced civilization.[4]
[4] The distinction between elementary utility and others
does not need to be applied with the utmost strictness, for
mining creates form utility by breaking up masses of ore, and
place utility by making them accessible. Agriculture shapes
its products and moves them to places of storage. It is
convenient in practice to adhere to the more general
classification suggested in the text.
_Form Utility._--A form utility is created when a raw material is
fashioned into a new shape, subdivided, or combined with other
materials, as is done in manufacturing and, in a certain way, in
commerce. Buying goods in bulk and selling them in small quantities is
the creating of form utilities and makes an addition to total wealth.
Oil in small cans is worth far more for consumption than it would be
if each consumer were forced to buy a tankful. Sugar is worth more to
a consumer when it is doled out to him in paper sacks than it would be
if it were to be had only in hogsheads. Merchants are not mere
exchangers, for they make positive additions to the utility of goods.
In primitive life no such class exists; and yet form utilities of
every kind are created, since men make for themselves the goods that
they use and adapt them in shape and in quantity to their current
needs.
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