Behavior of Business Men in a Changing World: Rise of Business Statesmanship

Extract

We must begin with a survey of the types of business which have existed throughout the known ages. In no other way can we obtain a perspective for understanding the present and for anticipating the future. In no other way can we become accustomed to the idea and the fact of eternal change, which is the life of society as of nature.

That there ever was a pre-capitalistic stage may be doubted, though such a view has been maintained. If by capitalism we mean a system of getting a living through the use of capital goods, then only the ape man or the pithecanthropus erectus could have escaped it. Capital goods, such as tools and weapons, have been essential to known primitive tribes. The full-fledged man, using fire and possessing a sense of humor, probably lived tens of thousands of years in a primitive capitalism but without any business at all.