ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES

of the total product acquired, by rendering some service, and
that a service of sufficient importance to make it worth the
while of the rest of the society to secure it. The problem
for each is to discover what service he can render, that is of
a sufficient degree of indispensability to society to enable him
to procure a satisfactory recompense for himself from society,
or to arouse a sufficient appreciation of the services he is
able and willing to render to reach the same end.
In economic study we are engaged in examining the
influence of the same features, as manifested in a community,
which, in the case of the isolated family, were seen to condition
 the kind and amount of the gratifications it could
procure, The nature of the environment, the extent of the
equipment of tools, the skill and intelligence with which the
work is planned and executed, are obviously of primary
importance in the one as in the other case. But, in addition
to regarding these features of the case, we need to devote a
marked degree of attention to the study of those conditions
which operate in the allocation of the amount received by
each member, What is the basis of the claim he can make
on society, what constitutes the inducement of society to
admit his claim? This part of our work should throw no
small degree of light on the great contrasts which exist
between the amounts to which different members of the
society succeed in establishing their claim. It should afford
indications as to whether, and in what degree, these contrasts
are a necessary feature of efficient social organisation.
The nation stands in need of the material goods, and the
services, which afford to its members the means of satisfying
their numerous and varied wants. Some wants are readily
satisfied, while, for others, the means of satisfaction are obtained
 only with difficulty. If the activities of the nation
were under the absolute control, and subject to the direction,
of one man, we might conceive of him as directing to each
occupation the amount of labour which, with the appliances
afforded to assist it, would provide the required supply of
commodity or service. If a change in the needs of the
nation, or in the efficiency of special sections of producers,
occurred, a transfer]of labour and rearrangement of appliances