Business of business may be traced with the dawn of human civilization in the form of ‘ Barter System’ Unlimited wants and limited resources and human efforts to balance these two are basic feature of human life. Economic activities are foundations of human life, existence and civilization.
The history of business evolution may be divided into three periods such as- Ancient Age, Middle Age and Modern Age. Ancient Age, Middle Age, Modern Age.
Ancient Age: The ancient age of business extended the beginning of human civilization to the barter system. With the start of economic activities resource-surplus and resource-deficit individuals were general feature of the society. As a result, man stared exchange of commodities that was known as Barter System Gradually, different things were used as medium of exchange, which culminated into the invention of money. Potters, blacksmiths, weavers, cultivators, etc. were the usual products and businessmen of that day.
Middle Age: Middle age of business extended from the barter system up to Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. Invention of money or currency, metal money, caused a revolution in the exchange. Business from developed and extended to Partnership from proprietorship. Regional competition was a general phenomenon among the businessmen. Small-scale factory, production and use of technology were general characteristics of the production process. To reduce compaction and to enhance cooperation, different guild systems, such as merchant guild, craft guild, etc. Evolved in the business arena. Monopoly and producer’s oriented markets were domination at that time.
Modern Age: Modern age of business starts from the Industrial Revolution in the min 1700s. Major scientific innovations transformed manual production process into mechanical one. Large-scientific production, factory based industry installation. Expanded business and production operation were some of the characteristics of the business and production process after Industrial Revolution. Some of the objectives of colonial expansion of the European colonial power over Asia. Africa and America countries were to create market for large-scale production and to collect raw materials for the industry. The conflict of colonial power causes the ground for the happening of two World Wars. All these contributed to the gradual globalization of business operation.
In the meantime, contributed type of organization emerged to cater the need of large scale production. Giant Multinational Corporation expanded their operations in every nook and corner of the world. Today, business has an international operation under the auspices of ‘General Agreement on trade Tariffs’ now World Trade Organization to some extent.