If now we unravel the countless and confusing Economic phenomena of our world by assigning each miscellaneous fact as it faces us to its natural place in the three categories or Basic Facts, and then observe with common-sense acuteness the natural laws of cause and effect that govern the mutual relations of those Basic Facts, we put ourselves in position to solve correctly every Economic problem that can challenge solution. Not to do so is to invite confusion of thought and false conclusions. Those Basic Facts are the “Big Three” of the Economic universe. Hints at all this came to us in passing through our Lesson on Economics, our Lesson on Money, and our Lesson on Trade. For confirmation of those hints and of the generalizations of the present Lesson, let us with Money in hand and Trade in mind visit one of the Trade terminals which are known in every-day speech as “retail stores.” What do we see at this “store” but a complex aggregation and combination, in multitudinous and confusing variety, of the services of Man in producing Artificial Objects from and upon Natural Resources to ultimate consumers through channels of Trade and in terms of Money? The number of those products here assembled, together with the complexity of the infinite detail involved in their production, would be bewildering were we to plunge into the ocean of particular facts unequipped with a clear mental grasp of the Basic Facts and their mutual Economic relations. For illustration, here is a barrel of potatoes to which the store clerk calls our attention with a view to delivering it to us in Trade for some of our Money. Now, what could be simpler at first thought than a barrel of potatoes as an Economic fact? A farmer has “raised” the potatoes and brought them to market, where we may have them for their Money price. But what of the farmer’s “help”? and the plough with which he prepared the ground? the hoe or more modern implement he used in the processes of cultivation and of reaping the crop the horses or the motor he ploughed with? the building in which he stored the crop before marketing it? the wagon he carried it to market in? the transportation equipment with which it was carried from a larger market place to this retail store? the factories in which the barrel was promoted from lumber to its present condition of usefulness? the factories and stores and railroads and ships and wagons and tools? the banks and book-keepers and truckmen? All such factors must be taken into account, with many more, in their vast and various and intricate relationships, if we are to know the Economic history and to solve the Economic problems regarding even so familiar an Artificial Object as a barrel of potatoes on sale at a retail store.