Distribution
in political economy, the method in which the products of industry are shared among the people concerned. The methods of distribution have varied and do vary in accordance with the state of social development.
They depend on legal as well as on economic conditions. They depend mainly on the ideas and institutions which prevail with reference to property in the three requisites of production-viz., land, labor, and capital. In countries where slavery prevailed, the slaveholder, as the owner alike of land, labor, and capital, disposed at his pleasure of the entire product of industry. Under the feudal system, by which the cultivator was attached to the soil and had a fixed interest in it, he was obliged to render to his superiors dues in labor, in kind, and latterly in money, which were fixed by custom or authority. sys Whatever the arrangements regarding property and the distribution of the fruits of industry may be, account must be taken of the share claimed by the government in the form of taxes, for the maintenance of army and navy and other means of defense, for justice and police, and for education, etc. Some sections of the so-called professional classes are from this source paid for services rendered to the state. But the clerical and teaching professions derive their income more or less from corporate property, while the legal and medical professions obtain their share of the distribution mostly from the services they render to private individuals.