AGENTS FOR CHANGING STUFF AND FORM 1. Variety in the objects of desire. f 2. Increasing range of choice and use of goods. f 3. Historical view of increasing indirectness of uses. f 4. Goods with indirect uses. f 5. Direct and indirect uses of the same good. f 8. Various changes affecting value. f 7. Agencies for altering stuff or material. f 8. Agencies for changing the form of things. f 9. Natural members as agents in effecting changes of form.
10. The use of tools by man. f 11. The gradual improvement of in direct agents. f 12. Tools and machines. f 13. The age of machinery.
§ 1. Variety in the objects of desire. It has been shown that market-price rests on, or results from, valuations; and that valuations are the reflection of the choices made by men among the objects of their desires. These objects are of the most varied nature, and are capable of the most varied uses. The desires for these uses of goods, to which the explanation of price has been traced, are neither fixed nor simple things. They change from moment to moment and are the resultant of man's whole nervous constitution, of his education and his social surroundings, and of the objective environment in which he finds himself. The features of the environment which are of the greatest import in affecting the strength of desires are the kinds and quantities of goods and the conditions under which they are to be had.
Every valuation, as it involves a comparison of two things, implies some regard to the conditions of supply. Every proc ess of comparison as we have seen (Chapter 2) is more or less a matter of impulse ; but it is generally likewise more or less a matter of calculation. The range of a man's choice is more or less far sighted in accordance with the range of his intelli gence, his experience, his knowledge, and his forethought. To 89 appreciate more fully the various sorts of relationships which exist between things and the desires of men, we should now make a further study of economic goods to see what are the conditions affecting both their quantity and the mode of their uses.
§ 2. Increasing range of choice and use of goods. The simplest form of life known to us, a unit of protoplasm, reacts in certain ways to the things it touches, reaching out to absorb some and withdrawing to escape others. This quality in the
cell of living matter is the most primitive aspect, or element, in economic choice. As organisms develop, they become ca pable of reflex action, a muscle being moved as a nerve is stim ulated, and thus action becomes more and more complicated, developing from simple reflexes to instincts and finally to judg ments and to calculated courses of conduct. Every increase in the complexity of nervous structure increases the complexity of a creature's environment. The creature is in touch with more things and in more ways, and is adjusting its life to these things and the things to its life. This means making more and more indirect and complex valuations.
With man this process had already, at the dawn of history, attained a much higher stage of development than it ever has had in the case of any animal. This is shown by man's use of fire, tools, dress, houses, domestic animals, etc. The proc ess became greatly hastened through the invention of more elaborate tools and more complex and efficient ways of doing things and by the development of tastes and habits of life, re quiring more and more material objects as conditions for their continuance. It is obvious that in our modern civilization man has become dependent upon the uses of things in more complex ways than ever before ; but further study and analysis are needed to enable us to see more clearly the real nature of this relationship between goods and man's desires.
§ 3. Historical view of increasing indirectness of uses. Now the relationship of goods and their uses to desires presents several important aspects, the first that we shall consider being that of technical relationship, or directness of use. The reader will recall at this point what was said (in Chapter 3, sections 12, 13) on the direct, present uses of goods. It is goods of this kind in our economic environment to which men first give at tention. This narrow circle of our economic environment, however, which is in immediate relation with psychic income, is surrounded by broad zones of goods less immediately re lated in time, or in space, or in mechanical working. It will aid us to see the conditions more clearly if we take a historical glance at the development of man's command over his eco nomic environment.