190 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 
cost of its plant, it will naturally be continued 
until its plant wears out. Moreover, in many 
industries the individual business can only be 
enlarged with difficulty. As we have already 
learnt, restrictions which endure for a lengthy 
period may be imposed upon its expansion. 
An employer might find himself in a position 
in which, if he had to lay plant down anew, 
it would pay him to provide for a business 
ten per cent, larger than the one which he 
already directed; but it might not pay him 
to make his existing business ten per cent, 
larger, for an extension of his premises 
and an increase of his engines and boilers 
might only be attainable, in view of all 
circumstances, at excessive cost. There are 
industries, of course, such as building and 
farming, where these particular restrictions 
are experienced less, if at all. 
In the whole of this exposition we have 
imagined for the sake of simplicity that 
every business is managed by a single em 
ployer who is its owner. This supposition, 
the reader will be fully aware, does not 
correspond with fact. Many businesses are 
organised as public companies and function 
under the control of a Board of Directors and 
a salaried manager, while other businesses 
are co-operative in form. Nevertheless, the