t of
civilization is the accumulation of wealth in an impoverished world. The
most important single factor in this connection was the development of a
class of businessmen in a society dominated by landlords, churchmen and
soldiers. Landlords, churchmen and soldiers lived during periods of
animal husbandry and primitive agriculture on the very narrow margins
produced during bountiful harvests. When harvests were bad, husbandmen
and farmers were reduced to starvation levels. Lacking means of storage
and refrigeration as well as facilities for transporting heavy materials
such as food, fuel and building materials, pre-civilized society
accumulated wealth slowly in mobile forms (precious metals and jewels)
and made few productive investments.

The advent of trade (business) and the trading class created a small but
potentially powerful class whose income and wealth were not derived from
direct contact with nature but came from trade, money changing, lending,
insuring and other activities associated with the accumulation and
investment of wealth in profit-yielding enterprises. Only in a secondary
sense did business depend on animal husbandry or agriculture. As their
primary task businessmen devoted themselves to the exploitation of labor
power and the storage and merchandising of the products turned out by
herdsmen, farmers, craftsmen. Part of their profits went into more
elaborate standards of feeding, clothing and housing themselves and
their dependents. Another, and a more crucial part of their profits went
into ships, warehouses, and the implements used in converting raw
materials into consumer goods and services, transporting them to the
markets, displaying them and persuading consumers to diversify their
needs, purchase a greater variety of goods and services and thus
increase the number and profitability of business transactions.

As this process mushroomed with the expansion of civilization, consumers
demanded a greater number of more expensive artifacts and consumer
capital goods, from housing and house furnishings such as bathrooms and
well-stocked kitchens to refrigerators, washing machines, air
conditioners, telephones, television sets, bicycles, automobiles and
elaborate recreation facilities and equipment. The expansion of mass
production and the mass market paced one another, constantly raising the
ante.

Mass production, mass marketing and pyramiding profits resulted, first
and foremost in the enrichment