12 
The argument had become inapplicable after the war, because 
the concerns were not bound any more to any particular line 
of business, they were prepared and capable of investing 
in any industry. But it still makes sense to speak of a 
maldistribution of profits between business firms: 
Because there are those who have much more funds than they 
are willing to use for real investment, and there are 
those who are keen to innovate and have to indebt themselves 
to undertake something. 
Since masS|hnemployment has appeared again an important 
corrective to the oligopolistic redistribution tendency 
(in favor of profit) has disappeared and the danger 
of increase in profit margin has become important again. 
Probably even more important is the new fact of the 
i 
inner degeneration of the concerns in the mass ; production 
industries: One might say that the focus of maturity 
has shifted from the market to the interior of the firm, 
its organisation, management and attitu^des. 
It is noteworhjty that there has been a development which 
runs counter to the mass production and the big concern. 
There is a rise of small and medium production which belies 
the tenet of the superiority of large scale. It happens in 
high tec industries, and in certain regions for example 
in Italy, as a form of rural industrialisation ( new cottage 
industries , in the words of Ch.Sable ). So far this is 
of limited importance. How far it presages a new era 
of industrial organisation I would not venture to guess.