constrained what is necessary to life in the very minimal four categories of "Food, Shelter, Clothing and Fuel," (Thoreau, 8) all of which were crucial to maintaining what he called the "animal heat" (Thoreau, 9) of mankind. As for man's means of production, he limited them to "a knife, an axe, a spade.." (Thoreau, 10) and other tools along those lines. In 1845, Thoreau began life at Walden Pond to "transact some private business" (Thoreau, 14) in order to validate his economic theory and to "learn the gross necessities of life and what methods have been taken to obtain them." (Thoreau, 42-43).
             First and foremost on Thoreau's list of essentials was food and food production. He believed that man should produce only what he is to consume and that it was unnecessary to exchange food for material goods. Thoreau's model of primitive production would therefore eliminate the surplus and exchange value of food, causing direct consumption to become the regulating factor in food production. Thoreau's economic model followed that of the classical natural economy wherein production is effectively controlled by internal demand and the market exchange mechanisms are ignored or do not exist. As a result, the center of Thoreau's model became the principle of self-sufficiency. He wanted to "avoid all trade and barter, so far as (his) food was concerned," (Thoreau 42-43) and so "having a shelter already, it would only remain to get clothing and fuel." (Thoreau, 51)
             Thoreau justified his treatment of Clothing and shelter as necessities of life and was careful to not stray far from his self-sufficiency principle. He built his shelter for a total of $28.12 ½ (Thoreau, 38) but was compelled to borrow an axe from one of his neighbours. This he justified by returning it "sharper than he had received it" (Thoreau, 31) and by the fac...