§8. _Ultimate Real Costs_. Just as the utility of "producers' goods" is derived from that of the "consumers' goods" which they help to make; so the cost of any commodity is derived from the cost of the things which help to make it. Moreover, just as we recognize that the utility of "consumers' goods" lies at the back of all demand, and constitutes the ultimate end of all production; so we cannot but feel, however obscurely, that behind the phenomena of money costs, there must lie certain ultimate costs, of which all money costs are but the measure. But when we try to explain what the nature of these real costs may be, we are plunged in difficulty. Wages, it may indeed seem at first sight, present no trouble. There is the effort and the fatigue, the unpleasantness of human labor, to represent real costs. But can we suppose that these things are measured with any approach to accuracy by the wages which are paid in actual fact? Is it true, even as a broad general rule, that the services which are most arduous and most disagreeable command the highest price? And wages are not the only ingredient of money costs. There are profits: to what real costs do profits correspond? More difficult still, to what does rent correspond? These plainly are not questions upon which he who runs may read. It will be necessary to devote the next four chapters to their elucidation. CHAPTER VI LAND §1. _The Special Characteristics of Land_. In the great process of co-operation by which the wants of mankind are supplied, Nature is an indispensable participant. She renders her assistance in an infinite variety of ways, of which the properties of the soil which man cultivates form only one; but the sunshine and rain which enable the farmer to grow his crops; the coal and iron ore beneath the surface of the earth, can be regarded for our present purpose as forming part of the land with which they are associated. We can thus concentrate upon land as the representative of the free gifts of nature, which are of economic significance. Land in modern communities is for the most part privately owned. It can be bought and sold for a price, and acquired by inheritance. Moreover, it is a common practice, particularly in the United Kingdom, for an owner who does not wish himself to cultivate or otherwise use the land, not to sell it to the man who does, but to lease it to him for a term of years for an annual payment which we term rent. It is therefore natural and convenient to envisage the problems, which we shall consider in this chapter, as problems concerning the price and rent of land. But, once again, the laws and principles which we shall state and illustrate in terms of the current systems of ownership and tenure, possess a much deeper significance than this terminology might suggest.