Abstract
According to institutional economics, transactions are carried out either in the market or within firms, with the latter emerging when market transactions become internalized. This suggests that the history of modern enterprises cannot be fully understood without investigating the history of markets as well. This paper makes some socioeconomic generalizations about the specific configuration of pre-modern markets and their transformation in the 19th century. When the focus shifted from a fairly invariable range of moderately processed commodities to a dynamic range of more highly processed, producerspecific specialties, it rendered the formerly useful separation of production and consumption by a sphere of independent all-purpose merchant ineffective, and fostered the combination of production, distribution, and functions relating to product innovation (R&D, marketing, legal protection). This necessitated the close coordination of specialists, prompting the rise of integrated organizations, whose success finalized the transformation of markets.
© by Akademie Verlag, Berlin, Germany