Since the indirect, or capitalistic, method of production is ordinarily more advantageous than the direct method, it characterizes, as we might expect, modern industry, with its enormous capital, its highly developed division of labor, and its complicated tools and machinery. Few business men would care to attempt to carry on production of any kind by direct methods. One of their chief concerns is to control sufficient capital for their business. Even farming, which we are still likely to regard as being carried on more or less directly, has felt the need of more and more capital to be expended for fertilizers, machinery, and buildings. Indirect production has had its highest development in manufactures. In another connection we have seen how, under conditions of excessively large production, complicated and costly machinery has gradually displaced many of the simpler direct processes. Such displacements do not occur by accident, and would not occur at all if capitalistic production in these particular cases were not more efficient than direct methods. After all, the final test is efficiency and profitableness; for the producer, seeking his own economic advantages, will employ those methods which appear to him to be the best. For that reason, capital has come to dominate modern industry; and we may expect it to enjoy an increasing dominance until the limits of indirect productive methods are reached.

Percentage of Total Value of Products for Leading Industries: 1909.