§ 1. _Dimensions of International Commerce in early Eighteenth Century._ § 2. _Natural Barriers to International Trade._ § 3. _Political, Pseudo-economic, and Economic Barriers-- Protective Theory and Practice._ § 4. _Nature of International Trade._ § 5. _Size, Structure, Relations of the several Industries._ § 6. _Slight Extent of Local Specialisation._ § 7. _Nature and Conditions of Specialised Industry._ § 8. _Structure of the Market._ § 9. _Combined Agriculture and Manufacture._ § 10. _Relations between Processes in a Manufacture._ § 11. _Structure of the Domestic Business: Early Stages of Transition._ § 12. _Beginnings of Concentrated Industry and the Factory._ § 13. _Limitations in Size and Application of Capital-- Merchant Capitalism._ § 1. In order to get some clear understanding of the laws of the operation of the new industrial forces which prevail under machine-production it is first essential to know rightly the structure and functional character of the "industrial organism" upon which they were destined to act. In order to build up a clear conception of industry it is possible to take either of two modes of inquiry. Taking as the primary cell or unit that combination of labour and capital under a single control for a single industrial purpose which is termed a Business, we may examine the structure and life of the Business, then proceed to discover how it stands related to other businesses so as to form a Market, and, finally, how the several Markets are related locally, nationally, internationally so as to yield the complex structure of Industry as a whole. Or reversely, we may take Industry as a whole, the Industrial Organism as it exists at any given time, consider the nature and extent of the cohesion existing between its several parts, and, further, resolving these parts into their constituent elements, gain a close understanding of the extent to which differentiation of industrial functions has been carried in the several divisions. Although in any sociological inquiry these two methods are equally valid, or, more strictly speaking, are equally balanced in virtues and defects, the latter method is here to be preferred, because by the order of its descent from the whole to the constituent parts it brings out more definitely the slight cohesiveness and integration of industry beyond the national limits, and serves to emphasise those qualities of nationalism and narrow localism which mark the character of earlier eighteenth century industry. We are thus enabled better to recognise the nature and scope of the work wrought by the modern industrial forces which are the central object of study.