pass through very many hands
before it is ready to be made over to the consumer. Each man in the
series puts a touch on it and passes it on to his successor.

A'''
A''
A'
A

A''' is an article of consumers' wealth and A is the rawest material
that enters into it. A' is this material somewhat transformed; A'' is
the same material after it has received the second transformation and
needs only a final touch to convert it into A''', in which state it
will be ready for the consumer's use. We have here a symbol of what is
actually taking place in the industry of the world. Cattle are grazing
on western ranches; hides are tanning in the woods of Pennsylvania;
leather is going through the many changes that fashion it into shoes
in the mills of Brockton; shoes are arranged on the shelves of
retailers in New York in readiness for the people who are to wear
them. These are stages in the making of a single product, and a
thousand different products are coming into existence in a like way.

_A Representation of the Groups, or Specific Industries, which compose
Economic Society._--If we put beside the series of A's a series of B's
and one of C's, we have a much simplified representation of what is
actually taking place. There are, in reality, a myriad of different
things which almost every consumer uses, and every one of them is made
by a series of productive operations like the one we have described.

The very fact that there are so many of them that it is hopeless to
try to represent them all in the table makes it desirable to
illustrate the principle by tabulating only a few and to assume that
these few are all that there are. For the purposes that we have in
mind it is entirely safe to suppose that a series of A's, one of B's,
and one of C's represent all the consumers' goods that society uses.
What we wish to ascertain is how the different series work together to
furnish an income for each member of society.

_The Organization Spontaneous._--Laborers can go where they will, and
yet they are in some way brought into an orderly relation to each
other, being placed in certain proportions in different industries.
Capitalists also are free to invest their funds as they will, and yet
there is a certain amount that is naturally devoted to each branch of
business. How this apportionment takes place we can most readily
ascertain by creating such an imaginary and very much simplified
society as this table furnishes.

A