ABSTRACT
The industrial revolution led to the creation, or redirection, of essentially every segment of business known for the past 200 or more years. Literally millions of businesses were formed by entrepreneurs who saw the potential for products and worked to develop them, and an unknown number of others disappeared because either their products were outmoded or they would not adapt to the new technologies. The new businesses eventually occupied virtually every niche imaginable, from manufacturing doorstops to space shuttles. The number and variety of support businesses is also vast, from taxi drivers to patent lawyers. There is another level of support, too, that serves the manufacturers, drivers, and lawyers: shopkeepers, home builders, road contractors, and every other person or business that helps make the societies of the world function as smoothly as they do.
