The Changing Economic Order
| Date | 01 January 1930 |
| Published date | 01 January 1930 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271623014700102 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
1
The
Changing
Economic
Order
1
By
LEON
C.
MARSHALL
Institute
of
Law,
Johns
Hopkins
University,
Baltimore,
Maryland
I N
considering
in
what
respects
so-
cial
organization
can
change,
does
change
and
is
controllable
by
man
in
its
changing,
it
has
become
customary
to
speak
of
four
possible
fields
or
areas
of
change:
man’s
biological
nature,
the
natural
environment,
the
physical
ele-
ments
of
culture
and
the
non-physical
elements
of
culture.
With
respect
to
the
biological
quali-
ties
and
abilities
of
man,
we
have
be-
come
accustomed
to
recognize
that
in
this
field
no
essential
change
has
oc-
curred
for
at
least
fifty
thousand
years,
and
perhaps
for
a
very
much
longer
pe-
riod
of
time.
At
least
fifty
thousand
years
ago
man
was
able
to
stand
erect;
his
free
hand
with
its
apposite
thumb
was
usable
as
a
tool-grasping
and
later
a
tool-making
member;
his
voice
box
had
apparently
its
present-day
plasticity;
his
muscular
powers
were,
if
anything,
greater
than
our
own;
the
quality
of
his
brain
cells-his
native
brain
power-
was
apparently
the
equal
of
our
own.
Since
no
essential
changes
have
taken
place
in
man’s
biological
make-up
in
the
last
fifty
thousand
years
or
more
we
have
come
to
think
of
this
element
as
unchanging,
as
a
fixed
datum.
So
also
we
have
come
to
regard
man’s
natural
environment
as
unchanging.
It
may,
of
course,
be
that
after
count-
less
eons
of
time
this
universe
will
&dquo;run
down.&dquo;
Occasionally,
of
course,
catastrophic
happenings
have
resulted,
and
will
in
the
future
continue
to
result,
in
more
or
less
significant
modi-
fications
of
the
natural
environment.
There
is,
of
course,
the
possibility
of
the
exhaustion
of
certain
natural
resources.
But
in
the
main
the
re-
sources
and
powers
of
nature
have
come
to
be
thought
of
as
an
unchanging
element,
as
another
fixed
datum.
If,
then,
there
has
been
upon
this
earth
approximately
the
same
kind
of
biological
man
for
the
last
fifty
thou-
sand
years
or
more,
and
if
for
an
even
longer
period
of
time
there
have
been
substantially
no
changes
in
natural
resources
and
powers,
it
follows
that
the
great
difference
in
man’s
status
today
as
compared
with
his
status
of
fifty
thousand
years
ago
is
to be
as-
cribed
to
that
human
product,
that
factor
which
man
himself
has
brought
into
being-culture.
In
terms
of
physical
culture-the
material
impedimenta
of
civilization-
vast
changes
have
certainly
occurred.
Neanderthal
man
of
fifty
thousand
years
ago
had
nothing
in
the
way
of
tools
except
such
sticks
and
stones
as
he
might
crudely
fashion
to
his
needs.
In
the
way
of
clothing
and
shelter
he
had
apparently
only
such
devices
as
he
could
appropriate,
with
little
altera-
tion,
from
nature.
He
may or
may
not
have
been
able
to
make
fire;
he
cer-
tainly
knew
how
to
keep
fire.
In
fine,
in
this
appropriative
stage
of
his
culture,
man
was
able
merely
to
appropriate,
without
substantial
change,
the
physi-
cal
goods
furnished
by
Nature.
Forty
thousand
years
later
Neolithic
man
had
progressed
to
the
stage
of
making
many
kinds
of
tools
of
stone
and
wood;
to
the
stage
of
domesticated
animals,
agricul-
ture,
woven
goods
and
pottery;
to
the
1
Address,
October
23,
1929,
before
the
Insti-
tute
of
Government
and
Politics,
arranged
by
the
Pennsylvania
League
of
Women
Voters
and
the
University
of
Pennsylvania.
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