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