Ifindustrywereinfacttheirrational，unjustandutterlyinhumananarchyitissometimesrepresentedtobe，itwouldnotholdtogetherfortwenty-fourhours。Notmerelyistheindividualbusinessinitsnormalstateafinelyadjusted，accurately-workingcomplexofhumanskill，industryandcooperativegood-will，butthelargerandlesscentralisedstructures，whichwecalltradesandmarkets，showawonderfulintricacyoforderintheirformandworking。TofeedthethousandsofmillsandworkshopsofEnglandwithafairlyregularsupplyofcountlessmaterialsdrawnfromthewideworld，tofeedthemillionsofmouthsofourpeoplewiththeirregularsupplyofdailyfood，arenotableachievementsofindustrialorder。
Inconcentrating，aswemust，ourchiefthoughtuponthedisorderofthesystem，theplaceswhereitfails，andthedamageofsuchfailure，wegainnothingbyexaggeratingtheindustrialmaladiesandtheirsocialinjuries。
Theproportionsoforderanddisorder，healthanddisease，humancostandhumanutility，intheworkingofourindustrialsystemarebestascertainedbyturningoncemoretoourconcretemassofwealth，ourincome，andenquiringintothequantitativemethodofitsdistribution。
Inexaminingthehumancostsinvolvedinagivenoutputoflabour-powerandofotherproductiveenergywerecognisedthatverymuchdependedupontheconditionsofthatoutput，andparticularlyuponthelengthandintensityoftheworking-dayandworking-week。
Similarly，inexaminingthehumanutilitygotfromtheconsumptionofagivenquantityofgoods，werecognisedthatitwilldependuponthesortandthenumberofpersonswhoreceiveitforconsumption。