The rapid changes that are going on in America bring about most varied conditions of ownership and tenancy in regard to urban industrial real-estate. Manufacturing on a small scale is often started in rented buildings even in small towns, and 6 See ch. 26 on Enterprise.
in the large cities this is more common. But the larger manu facturing firms and companies usually own the building and land in which their manufacturing is done. The special character of the machinery used and of the buildings required make this the better plan. Even then, however, the need of expansion often leads to the hiring of additional land, build ings, and offices. The extent to which the renting of real estate for business purposes is practised now is thus in the aggregate enormous.
§ 10. The renting-contract in other cases. There has al ways been a strong motive for the renting of smaller objects of movable wealth, rather than their purchase outright, wher ever the user has a need of an agent in an unusual place, or a temporary need of an exceptional nature. The traveler wishing to cross the stream needs the boat but once, and many other travelers will pass the same way having the same single time need. Usually the payment in this case is in the form of a fee for both the boat and the ferryman's services. The farmer would like to have an extra horse for a few days each year and can afford to pay well for its use, but could better go without the horse those few days than have the expense of keeping it throughout the year. He may gain greatly, how ever, if he can hire a horse at such times.
A hack or a taxicab is hired by the hour, a carriage from the livery stable by the day, a bicycle, a sewing machine, a type writer, by the day, week, or month. Boats, guns, tents, jewelry, even diamond engagement rings, yield their joys under the renting contract. People frequently hesitate be tween the renting and the purchase of a piano, and in some cases renting is the more convenient and desirable way of securing its use. The purchase of a dress-coat or of a mas querade-suit to be worn but once, involves for some persons a needlessly large expense, when for a moderate sum the temporary use may be had, and the article may then be re turned, little the worse for wear, to the accommodating clothier.
§ 11. Buying the 11138,1100 without a renting-contract. When the owner or his employee has charge of the agent and directs it, there is usually not a renting-contract, altho the purchaser is buying the usance. When the use of the machine is a minor element, the transaction takes the form of hiring the man's services, while he furnishes the needed machines. Thus the cabman, the truckman, the ferryman, the bootblack, the carpenter, are hired and paid for their labors along with the use of the wagon, horse, boat, brushes, and tools. These cases are midway between the hiring of a material use-bearer and the hiring of a laborer, having something of the nature of each. A case of the same kind on a large scale is seen in transportation by railroad or by steamship, where the passenger is getting by one payment a great complex of uses, of fuel, engines, machines, car or ship, services of engineer, seaman, conductor, or captain. It is a step further to the case where the customer buys the product of a factory. The sale of the yard of cloth is the sale of the raw materials, the uses of building, engines, looms, and the labor of various em ployees, all combined in one product. In some cases the usance (as of craftsmen's tools) is sold under a labor- or wage-contract; in other cases (as of boats and trains) it is sold under a transportation contract, the price becoming chargeable as the usance is given ; in other cases (as in manu facturing and mercantile business) the price of the usance is included in the contract of sale of products which the uses of agents have at an earlier time helped to produce. In none of these cases is there a renting-contract, for possession of the agent is not delivered to the buyers of the use, and the owner continues to be responsible for the repair and operation of the agent. It is merely a matter of convenience, reflected and fixed in custom, whether sale of usance shall be under the renting-contract or under some other form. With more or less of difficulty and of advantage its use might be extended to the borrowing and lending of many classes of goods where it is not now used.