ABSTRACT
In July, 1922, the president of The Thomas Iron Company announced that the required amount of the firm's stock had been deposited with Drexel and Company, investment bankers of Philadelphia, and that with that transaction the bankers' agreement to purchase the iron company would become effective. Generally economic theory says very little about the failure of business firms or the failure of entrepreneurs to innovate or adopt innovations when all about these entrepreneurs other firms are striving to meet the new conditions of the trade. It is known that the science of economics utilizes tools of analysis which permit predictions of the effects of change in various factors impinging upon the operation of the economic system. As the vast majority of business enterprises that are created generally fail for some reason or other, this firm's history, unlike most business histories of firms that have survived, may be more representative of the life cycle of the majority of business enterprises.
