In tracing through the Business, the Trade, and the Industrial Organism the chief structural and functional changes which accompany machine-development, I have not attempted to follow out the numerous branches of social investigation which diverge from the main line of inquiry. Two studies, however, of "the competitive system" in its modern working are presented; one examining the process of restriction, by which competition of capitals gives way to different forms of combination; the other tracing in periodic Trade Depressions the natural outcome of unrestricted competition in private capitalist production. In some final chapters I have sought to indicate the chief bearings of the changes of industrial structure upon a few of the deeper issues of social life, in particular upon the problem of the Industrial Town, and the position of woman as an industrial competitor. A portion of Chapters VIII., IX., and X. have already appeared in the _Contemporary Review_ and in the _Political Science Quarterly Review_, and I am indebted to the courtesy of the editors for permission to use them. I have also to acknowledge most gratefully the valuable assistance rendered by Dr. William Smart of Glasgow University, who was kind enough to read through the proofs of a large portion of this book, and to make many serviceable corrections and suggestions. JOHN A. HOBSON. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 Section. 1. Industrial Science, its Standpoint and Methods of Advance. 2. Capital as Factor in Modern Industrial Changes. 3. Place of Machinery in Evolution of Capitalism. 4. The Monetary Aspect of Industry. 5. The Literary Presentment of Organic Movement. CHAPTER II. THE STRUCTURE OF INDUSTRY BEFORE MACHINERY 10 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. CHAPTER III. THE ORDER OF DEVELOPMENT OF MACHINE INDUSTRY 44