Industry and commerce

Business activities fall into industry (making goods) and commerce (getting them to buyers). An industry is not one factory but a group of firms doing similar work: all the sugar mills together make the sugar industry. Industry converts resources into useful goods. There are three kinds:

• Primary industries work directly with nature. Extractive industries take things out of the earth or sea (mining, fishing). Genetic industries rear plants and animals (nurseries, poultry, animal husbandry).
• Secondary industries turn primary products into useful goods: manufacturing and construction (roads, dams, buildings).
• Tertiary industries provide support services to the others: transport, banking, insurance.

Manufacturing works in four ways:

• Analytical: one material is broken into many products, as an oil refinery turns crude oil into petrol, diesel and kerosene.
• Synthetical: many materials are combined into one new product, as in cement (you cannot get the clay and lime back out).
• Processing: a product passes through several stages, as sugarcane becomes sugar, or wood becomes paper.
• Assembling: ready-made parts are put together, as in a car or a computer. Each part stays what it was; a phone's camera is still a camera.

Commerce is trade plus the auxiliaries to trade. A factory may be in Rajasthan and the buyer in Delhi; commerce removes the hindrances between them:

• Persons: traders connect producer and buyer.
• Place: transport carries goods where they are needed.
• Time: warehousing stores goods until they are needed, keeping prices steady.
• Risk: insurance covers loss from fire, theft or accident.
• Finance: banking provides money.
• Information: advertising and public relations tell people about products.