This process leads to the creation, extension, or perpetuation
of a middle stratum of technicians and specialists working in the service
of the elite. These include public officials, craftsmen, artists,
servants, merchants, soldiers, priests, and scholars. The chief task
of the officials is to locate the economic surplus and separate it from
its producers (1966, p.62).
In short, a complex apparatus is brought into being, the primary function
of which is to insure the elite's continued control over the economic surplus
and its transformation into the varied kinds of goods and services the
elite desires (1966, p.63).