in the theory of value and prices.

35

§ 0 .

An analogous discussion applies to fig. 7. In place of a given in-come we must suppose a given amount of expenses to be met by the

7.

~ i—i -A.

production of various commodities.* It is at this point that an im-portant distinction between production and consumption enters, viz:in civilized life men find it advantageous to consume many thingsbut to produce few. The discussion of this difference pertains to

Part II.

CHAPTER IV.

M COMMODITIES—N CONSUMERS (OR PRODUCERS).

We have seen the laws of distribution of commodities from twopoints of view, by first restricting our discussion to one commodityamong many consumers and afterward to one consumer among manycommodities. Our discussion is like a tourist’s view of a great city,who glances up each east and west street while riding along the sameavenue and then takes a “cross town” course and sees each avenuefrom a single street. We are now to seek a bird’s-eye view.

The variables and their variations which have been described arecomparatively simple. But the possible variations in the more general case are so complicated that they can scarcely be seen or described without the aid of a mechanism.

* Borrowing capital is to be here regarded as a form of producing. The dis-utility of borrowing the last dollar equals the disutility of producing the lastdollar’s worth of goods. See foot note to § 2.