HISTORY AND VALUE u can see that Gross World Product (all the stuff the world produces) grew exponentially after industrialization because serious mass production became possible.
Creating Value in Different Periods
The Hunter Age. After hunter-gatherers became growers and herders, some people realized that it is faster and easier to go take other people’s crops and cattle than grow your own. War became popular. And wealth got a bad reputation.
The Craftsmen Age. The world pretty much stayed that way until about 9th century, when some people (who were too smart to be peasants but not aggressive enough to be vassals) realized that they could avoid being plundered by kings and their soldiers if they organized themselves into bigger groups – that is how cities were born..
The Explorer Age. Cities changed everything. Ideas swirled around and the more unscared ventured out to find the far away lands. They came back with silks, spices and other things people wanted but could not have before.
The Merchant Age. Once the far away lands were discovered, people who didn’t mind the risk of sailing really far to bring back exotic goods became the merchants.
The Industrialization Age. When electricity came around and machines became electric-powered, they started producing even more even faster. Industrialists became the big guys.
The Corporate Age. Now that you have trucks, you can distribute your factory’s goods almost anywhere. Factories realized they could reach a lot more consumers, so they organized themselves into factories with lots of departments – that is corporations. Being a corporate executive was the best thing you could do.
The Information Age. When corporations started employing hundreds of millions of people, and these people started spending money, banks started to need to manage the transactions – a lot of data. The information age started and technology developed rapidly.

All of the above ways of creating value still exist. Startups today are the way to create value with the most impact.