Divided into four parts, the book is structured as follows:
Part 1: Examines the extent to which the inequality of incomes is guided by ethical principles.
Part 2: Illustrates the growth of the theory of distribution in the hands of successive generations of economists.
Part 3: Develops the theory on the subject of the division of income between categories.
Part 4: Looks at the division of income between people and the causes of that inequality, paying particular attention to the factor of inherited wealth.