----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- It is possible that there are some tensions between an analytical definition and a statistical definition of industry. Customs officials have long struggled to deal with definitions of traded goods (especially as misclassification may be deliberately made to avoid tariffs). An international union of custom agencies created an International Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (the Harmonized System or HS). The HS is a broad classification system of approximately 5,000 headings (in 6-digits) which are used for classifying goods involved in international trade. First introduced on 1 January 1988, it has subsequently been adopted as the basis for describing and classifying goods for Customs purposes by most trading nations. It provides international omparability of trade information for administrative and statistical purposes. There are many dimensions in classification systems. One approach is to lump together things using same or similar inputs, or originating from same producers. Another approach is to consider the end-user’s perspective. For example, men's shirts may vary widely according to the input used, but the user may see them all as shirts. On the reverse side, a garment manufacturer may produce men's shirts and boy’s shirts and women’s blouses from essentially the same materials, using pretty much the same technology, that is, a blouse is a shirt by another name or a man's shirt is a boy's shirt for boys known as men. There are many other possibilities of classification. For the historian of thought, perhaps the more interesting question is the analytical definition. I have no idea what that might be. I need help. Mohammad Gani ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]