Industry refers to the production of an economic good (either material or a
service) within an economy.[1] There are four key industrial economic sectors:
the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining
and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction, and
manufacturing; the tertiary sector, which deals with services (such as law and
medicine) and distribution of manufactured goods; and the quaternary sector, a
relatively new type of knowledge industry focusing on technological research,
design and development such as computer programming, and biochemistry. A fifth,
quinary, sector has been proposed encompassing nonprofit activities. The economy
is also broadly separated into public sector and private sector, with industry
generally categorized as private. Industries are also any business or
manufacturing.
Industry in the sense of manufacturing became a key sector of production and
labour in European and North American countries during the Industrial
Revolution, which upset previous mercantile and feudal economies through many
successive rapid advances in technology, such as the steel and coal production.
It is aided by technological advances, and has continued to develop into new
types and sectors to this day. Industrial countries then assumed a capitalist
economic policy. Railroads and steam-powered ships began speedily establishing
links with previously unreachable world markets, enabling private companies to
develop to then-unheard of size and wealth. Following the Industrial Revolution,
perhaps a third of the world's economic output is derived from manufacturing
industries—more than agriculture's share.
Many developed countries (for example the UK, the U.S., and Canada) and many
developing/semi-developed countries (People's Republic of China, India etc.)
depend significantly on industry. Industries, the countries they reside in, and
the economies of those countries are interlinked in a complex web of
interdependence.