The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other EssaysVeblen, Thorstein
Philosophy
The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other Essays
Veblen, Thorstein
Economics; Science
It is true, industry is closely conditioned by business. In a modern
community, the business man finally decides what may be done in
industry, or at least in the greater number and the more conspicuous
branches of industry. This is particularly true of those branches that
are currently thought of as peculiarly modern. Under existing
circumstances of ownership, the discretion in economic matters,
industrial or otherwise, ultimately rests in the hands of the business
men. It is their business to have to do with property, and property
means the discretionary control of wealth. In point of character, scope
and growth, industrial processes and plants adapt themselves to the
exigencies of the market, wherever there is a developed market, and the
exigencies of the market are pecuniary exigencies. The business man,
through his pecuniary dispositions, enforces his choice of what
industrial processes shall be in use. He can, of course, not create or
initiate methods or aims for industry; if he does so he steps out of the
business sphere into the material domain of industry. But he can decide
whether and which of the known processes and industrial arts shall be
practiced, and to what extent. Industry must be conducted to suit the
business man in his quest for gain; which is not the same as saying that
it must be conducted to suit the needs or the convenience of the
community at large. Ever since the institution of property was
definitely installed, and in proportion as purchase and sale has been
practiced, some approach has been made to a comprehensive system of
control of industry by pecuniary transactions and for pecuniary ends,
and the industrial organisation is nearer such a consummation now than
it ever has been. For the great body of modern industry the final term
of the sequence is not the production of the goods but their sale; the
endeavor is not so much to fit the goods for use as for sale. It is well
known that there are many lines of industry in which the cost of
marketing the goods equals the cost of making and transporting them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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