ABSTRACT
The historical evolution of business discussed in earlier chapters shows that business firms were formerly highly dependent on the drive of an individual, who owned three of the business elements, viz. money, information, and capital assets, and came near to owning the fourth, i.e. labour. This business entrepreneur bought raw materials, produced goods, and sold them, but these activities were undertaken on the basis of a concept which was a direct and exclusive product of his personal desires for realization, such as power, wealth, conquest of the unknown. In other words, the society outside the entrepreneur provided him, passively, with the means of exploiting the opportunities which he discerned. The exploitation took place at the fringe of the society. The early intervention, and interest in general, of national governments in business did not affect the relationship between the entrepreneur and the four business elements, but rather the quality control of certain products (food and specific export products) and the way in which the raw materials became available.
