us see who are the persons participating in its production, instrumental in its circulation and sharing in its distribution.
In thus writing the biography of any factory product we will find that its life history will read as follows:
It was produced in a large factory building owned or hired by the manufacturer. It was made by a large number of workingmen hired by the same manufacturer, who paid them for their labor, out of materials provided for by the manufacturer, and by means of machinery owned by him. After our factory product was ready for use it was shipped to a wholesale dealer, who bought it from the manufacturer, and who, in turn, sold it to a retail dealer. From the retail dealer it went to the consumer, who purchased it from him. This is the usual course. There are, however, variations of this course. The wholesale dealer may, for instance, have been omitted, if the manufacturer sells direct to the retailer; or, there may have been a good deal more of buying and selling done in it before it finally reached the consumer. One thing is sure, however, its life-course led through these three stages: manufacture, trade, consumption.
The persons whom it met in this, its life-course, who affected its existence and its different changes, and who participated in its distribution in one way or another, besides those who participated in the production and distribution of the raw material from which it was made, which may itself have been a factory product, are: The laborer who produced it and was paid for it; the manufacturer who caused it to be produced, paid the cost of its production and received the purchase price from the trader who bought it from him; the merchant who bought it at one price and re-sold it at another, pocketing the difference; and, finally, the consumer, who paid for it and kept it for consumption, either personal, non-productive, or impersonal, productive consumption in the manufacture of some other factory product. There may have been others: the manufacturer may have paid rent for his premises to the landlord or interest
