three productive processes three different times. Other things may have passed through more before the final consumptive process occurs. Production is very commonly thought of as being only the first one of the three operations, but the changes brought about by the transporter and the merchant are productive of economic wealth through the application of human physical and mental efforts hence are as truly a part of production as is the first operation. The factors which enter into production are by some economists given as nature and labor, by others as land, labor, and capital. Under nature or land are included all natural elements, external to man, such as the forces of cohesion, gravitation, of moving air and water, and also the stored-up riches of nature. Under labor are placed all those things or utilities which have been added by the application of human endeavor, either mental or physical. Physical strength in and of itself is not sufficient, for the productive output increases with mental strength. The ox or the horse is capable of exerting greater physical force than is man, but without the guiding, directing force of man’s mind it would produce nothing. Moral qualifications are also placed under the general heading “labor” as they affect production. Temperance, dependability, prudence, frugality, etc., have in them productive elements of importance the same as the intellectual qualifications of quick perception, alertness, imagination reason and judgment. Capital has been frequently defined as stored-up labor. It is the finished product of some previous effort, but as wheat and flour may be considered as intermediate products between nature and bread, so capital may be looked upon as an intermediate product between nature and more labor necessary to produce anew. “Its own origin, its existence, its subsequent action are nothing but stages in the continuous working of the true elements, nature and labor.”[188] Capital--raw materials, tools, machines, buildings, equipment, means for transportation and selling, stored products--is absolutely essential to more production, hence may be considered as an independent factor, although it may have been the product of previous labor allied to natural powers.