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  employer ­
  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