Industry is the economic activity that is based on the production of goods on a large scale with the help of specialized machines.
Industrial work generally refers to work in a factory and the goods that are produced by transforming raw materials into manufactured products.
The word industry is of Latin origin. It is formed by the prefix indu– meaning “inside”, and the root of the verb struo which expresses “build, organize.”
Rural trade through small-scale manual production of goods changed dramatically starting in the 18th century with the Industrial Revolution.
Technological advances in the 18th century, such as the invention of the steam engine, means of transportation and communication, transformed the world drastically. In this way, industries such as automotive, textile and technology flourished with the help of machines to mechanize production lines.
See also Industrial Revolution.
Types of industry
Industries are classified according to the type of products they manufacture, dividing into two large groups: capital goods and consumer goods industries.
Capital goods industries
The capital goods industries group together heavy or extraction industries such as, for example, the steel, petrochemical, metallurgical and cement industries. Heavy industries are characterized by being large in size and housing many machines. The production factories of this type of industry are usually grouped in a place called an industrial plant.
See also: Petrochemical Industry and Factory.
Consumer goods industries
Consumer goods industries, also known as light industries, are smaller in scale. They manufacture products for immediate consumption. There are a larger number of people working in the factory along with the machines in light factories. Some examples of light industry are the automotive industry, the textile industry and the food industry.
Furthermore, depending on the legal status, the industrial company can be classified into three main types:
Industries or public companies: They depend on a public entity and are part of the national heritage and their benefits or losses affect society as a whole.
Industries or private companies: They are subdivided into individual or collective depending on the number of partners of the commercial company.
Mixed industries: one part of the industry is public and the other private.
In law, industries are legally called industrial companies, they are defined as the legal and economic unit of production that combines productive factors (capital, labor, natural or semi-finished resources) to produce industrial goods.
Industry characteristics
The industrialization process changed the economy based on agriculture to that of industrial development. In this sense, the industry is characterized by the manufacturing of goods through machinery in the fastest and most efficient way, which translates into greater profits if all the goods produced are sold.
The industry uses tools and machinery to transform raw materials or semi-finished products into consumer products.
All industrial activity, furthermore, is characterized by having three types of elements:
The human element: broadly includes factory workers, administrators and businessmen; The economic element: refers to capital and the market; The material element: raw materials that are classified by their origin, being non-metallic minerals, minerals metals, raw materials of plant origin, raw materials of animal origin, oil, gas and coal.
See also Industrialization.
Textile industry
The textile industry is responsible for the manufacture of fibers, threads, fabrics and all products related to the production of clothing in factories.
The textile business boomed in the Industrial Revolution as the fabrics gained great demand from colonial markets.
Pharmaceutical industry
The pharmaceutical industry is responsible for the manufacturing, preparation and marketing of medicinal drugs to prevent and treat diseases.
The pharmaceutical industry emerged at the beginning of the 19th century, as a result of obtaining certain substances to produce medicines.
The first synthetic drug was acetophenidine, marketed in 1885 as an analgesic by the Bayer company.
Industry and Commerce
Industrial activity is the production, extraction, manufacturing, preparation, repair and assembly of any type of materials.
On the other hand, commercial activity is responsible for the purchase and sale, distribution of goods and merchandise, as well as all activities established in the Commercial Code that are not classified as industrial or service activities.
See also Commerce.
Industry and environment
Industries have created a negative environmental impact through the indiscriminate use of natural resources, generating a large amount of waste, pollutants and waste.
Furthermore, due to poor legislation, industries have caused a lot of damage to the environment. That is why today many governments seek to enact laws to protect the ozone layer, limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by industries in order to reduce environmental pollution.