Re Mason Gaffney's last point, it was I who innocently asked the question   
in the first place, and most recently I was only trying to explain   
(briefly) what I was after. I certainly did not mean to raise a straw man,   
or demean anyone, or limit the discussion, if others want to take it   
elsewhere. Regarding the substantive question of the history of the concept   
of production, as economists formed it through the 19th century, I still   
think we have emerging here (in this thread) a basic difference in ways of   
doing the history of thought, especially the history of scientific thought,   
and I (for one) am not going there. I'm just trying to understand the   
complex of antecedent and contemporaneous notions 19th-century economists   
had in mind when they wrote of "factors" or "agents" or "elements" and   
"production," and since this is already plenty for me, I will steer clear   
of the bigger question.  
  
John Womack