ABSTRACT
We are accustomed to think of the farmer, the miner, and the manufacturer as the real producers of wealth. The trader and the transporting agent seem to us to be concerned merely with the distribution of wealth already produced. We may be forced to admit that their services are necessary, but we think of them as in some way taking toll from the wealth others have produced. A little reflection, however, will show us that such a view of things is wholly false. Neither the farmer nor the manufacturer creates anything really “new.” Utilizing the forces of nature, they merely give new forms to things, forms which fit things better for use in the satisfaction of human needs. But it is not alone sufficient that things should be in the form in which they are needed. If a thing is really to constitute an article of wealth, it must be brought to the place at which it is needed and be available at the time at which it is needed. The creation of wealth, then, involves not only changes in form, but also changes in place and in time.
