Recall here the experiments conducted by Ford and the economies made by his firm through direct management of transport and distribution of the produt. These economies affected production costs and permitted higher wages and lower selling prices. Since these preliminary conditions existed, already rendered rational by historical evolution, it was relatively easy to rationalize production and labour by a skillful combination of force (destruction of working-class trade unionism on a territorial basis) and persuasion ( high wages, various social benefits, extremely subtle ideological and political propaganda ) and thus succeed in making the whoie life of the nation revolve around production. Hegemony here is born in the factory and requires for its exercise only a minute quantity of professional political and ideological intermediaries. (Gramsci,1971:285)