Evolution of Industry and Commerce

The historical development of business and its processes of development up to now is called evolution of business. Business was not evolved in one or two days. It can be studied in two ways.

Evolution of industry

It is dated with the evolution of human beings. It is as old as human civilization. It was developed through various stages.

A. Hunting stage

In ancient times people lived in caves and fulfilled their basic needs of food an clothes through hunting the wild animals in forest. They were not civilized and hovered here and there. Their needs were also limited.

B. Pastoral stage

The stage of further development of human from barbarism is called pastoral stage. This stage is basically called the age of keeping animals. Animals were used for milk, meat, wool, skin and so on beyond food and clothes. The wants went on increasing and development also started.

C. Agriculture stage

Slowly, human beings became a little bit civilized and got idea about farming and keeping cattle. This stage was the major stage of development of industry. In this stage people started to do agriculture and live in river banks. They started to cultivate crops and domesticate the animals. Development of agriculture is divided into 5 stages they are

I. Handicraft stage:

It is the beginning of industrial era. It is the stage of development of industry. Simple hands made tools were also developed. Local resources were the major source of raw materials. In the beginning of this stage people were only limited to their own needs but later own surplus products were used to exchange the goods with the roods basically called barter system. Products were exchanged with product and market was starting to develop. Capital invested was minimized.

Ii. Guild stage:

It was the beginning of organized activities. Organized groups of traders, craftsmen, artisans used to collect various resources from the local areas and produced goods using them.

Iii. Age of domestic system

After the stage of guild the age of domestic system was initiated. Crafts men were not able to fulfill the unlimited and increasing wants of people by using the limited resource. So, use of hands and tools for producing quality goods was introduced. People were employed and were paid according to the units of goods produced. However salary was very low because the value of money was much higher at that time.

Iv. Industrial revolution:

It began with the replacement of old system. It is the turning point of modern industrialization. Domestic system of production was replaced by large scale factory system. There was invention, innovation .development of scientific techniques which encouraged mass production and distribution. There were numerous job opportunities. Salary was increased and quality was maintained.

V. Present age:

Today’s modern era with industrialization, use of technology, computerization, modernization robotizing is the most developed stage of industries. Goods are being produced meeting the demand of large number of people. There are huge number of industries producing large number of goods to meet large amount of needs and wants by providing many jobs and salaries.

Evolution of commerce:

It is related with the distribution and exchange of goods and services. It is related with transportation, communication, Banking, warehousing import export, trade and so on. It links between producer and consumer. It gradually develops along with the development of human and society. There are many stages of evolution of commerce

A. Self sufficiency stage

It is the initial stage of commercial evolution. The wants are very limited. In this stage people produced goods themselves to satisfy their own basic needs. They survived through hunting and gathering foods. There was no market. There was thus no exchange of goods. They were independent.,

B. Barter system:

The wants of people increased with development of society. There was both advancement and civilization of market. Self sufficiency stage didn’t remain with advancement. They started to exchange the goods they produced with goods that other people produced to fulfill other requirements. This is called barter system. There was exchange of goods and services with goods and services.

C. Origin of money:

From the beginning of barter, people felt that there was difficulty in deferred payment, commerce, divisibility and place of exchange .That’s why money was originated. People developed coins but there was difficulty in large payment. So paper money was introduced. Money was used as medium of exchange, Measurement of value, deferred payment, redistribution of income and wealth, credit system and many more. After the origin of money, national and international trade started.

D. National economy:

In this stage, buying and selling of goods and services was done within the country. The local market converted into regional and city market. There was division of work and specialization. Then goods were produce not only for local people but also for national market. There was also development in banking, advertising, insurance, warehouse and other auxiliaries,.

E. International economy:

International economy s called global economy. The globalization of trade introduced to speed up the activities of trade in the international level. It is not possible for a country to produce all demanded goods according to needs and wants. Therefore the countries started to import the goods and other countries exported. Slowly, import and export was introduced in all counties. Trade started to extend in world market. WTO (world trade organization) was also established to control the level of import, export and evils associated with them.