to the ultimate product out of which all the producers are remunerated. An idea of a train of
production formed by successive operations directed to an ultimate product may be obtained by
watching any factory. Here you have the raw cotton-wool put in, there you see a “sliver” of carded
cotton flowing from one machine en route to another, until at the last stage there comes out the
finished article. To illustrate the process of distribution, we must now conceive a backward flow of
the ultimate product to the several producers. We might imagine each one's share to be conveyed to
him by some contrivance like those wondrous little vehicles in the Boston Public Library, which,
as if gifted with human intelligence, find their way about the building to the particular place where
each book belongs. To illustrate the effect of distance in time on distribution, we must further modify
the model presented by an ordinary factory. We must suppose the interval of time between the
processes to be greatly magnified, months being substituted for minutes. Then there will come into
view the circumstance to which attention is particularly directed,—that a larger share will be
conveyed to each producer (other things being equal), the greater his distance from the final stage.
There will thus be a continual flow of materials in process of manufacture onwards and of products
ready for consumption backwards, if the work at each stage is steadily maintained,— provided that
there is a continual stream of raw material, and that the machines are continually renewed.
Considering the continuous round of production and consumption, we realise the important truth
which Mill has thus expressed:—
“The miller, the reaper, the ploughman, the plough-maker, the wagoner and wagon-maker,
and the sailor and ship-builder, when employed, derive their remuneration from the ultimate
product,—the bread made from the corn on which they have severally operated or supplied the
instruments for operating.”80
To represent the continual expansion of value as the present ripens into the future, a series
80 Political Economy, Book I. chap. ii. §§1, 2.