Like the lion in the fable, he gets paid in each of his capacities; so that, after he has been served, nothing is left for his associates.
_Ego primam tollo, nominor quia leo.
Secundam quia sum fortis tribuctis mihi.
Tum quia plus valeo, me sequetur tertia.
Malo adficietur, si quis quartam tetigerit._ I know nothing prettier than this fable.
"I am the contractor.

I take the first share.
I am the laborer, I take the second.
I am the capitalist, I take the third.
I am the proprietor, I take the whole." In four lines, Phaedrus has summed up all the forms of property.
I say that this interest, all the more then this profit, is impossible.
What are laborers in relation to each other?
So many members of a large industrial society, to each of whom is assigned a certain portion of the general production, by the principle of the division of labor and functions.

Suppose, first, that this society is composed of but three individuals,--a cattle-raiser, a tanner, and a shoemaker.

The social industry, then, is that of shoemaking.

If I should ask what ought to be each producer's share of the social product, the first schoolboy whom I should meet would answer, by a rule of commerce and association, that it should be one-third.