Man’s capacity for most economic labor is so closely connected with the exquisite articulation of the human hand, that Buffon could say without exaggeration that reason and the hand made man man.(234) But it is true of economic labor, as of all other labor, that it is more efficient in proportion as mind predominates over matter. The best division of economic labor is the following:(235) A. Discoveries and inventions.(236) B. Occupation of the spontaneous gifts of nature, as, for instance, of wild plants, wild animals, and of minerals.(237) Where this is the only kind of economic labor, man is necessarily dependent on nature in a high degree. C. The production of raw materials; that is, a direction given to nature in order to the production of raw materials, by stock-raising, agriculture, forest-culture etc., but not by mining. D. The transformation (_Verarbeitung_) of raw material by means of manufactories, factories, the trades etc. E. The distribution of stores of goods among those who are to use them directly, whether from people to people or from place to place (wholesale), or among the individuals of the same place (retail).(238) To this class also belong leasing, renting, loaning, etc. F. Services, in the more limited sense of the term, which embraces personal as well as incorporeal goods; as, for instance, the labors of the doctor, teacher; virtuoso, of the statesman, judge, and of preachers, whose office it is, by way of eminence, to produce and preserve the immaterial wealth, known as the State and the Church.(239) The order followed in the above classification is that in which the different classes of labor are wont to be historically developed. Section XXXIX. Labor.—Taste For Labor.—Piece-Wages. Man’s taste for labor is conditioned especially by the extent to which, and the security with which, he may hope to enjoy the fruit of his labor himself. Hence it is that, as a rule, the slave (§ 71, ff.) and socager work least willingly, the day laborer with less industry than the piece-worker,(240) who is at the same time more satisfied with himself, and gives most satisfaction to his master,(241) since he acquires more both for himself and for his master. The superiority of piece-paid labor is greater in proportion as the workman calculates his own advantage. It is, therefore, smallest in the case of ingenuous uneducated workmen, and in that of the really conscientious.(242) The fear of seeing one’s condition grow worse, through want of industry, exerts an influence precisely similar to the hope of improving it. In both respects, free competition (§ 97) must be considered one of the principal means of furthering the taste for labor.(243)