Dear @ioanasolea

Interesting choice of topic. Upvote on the way :)

I've been wondering several times about similar issue. Just a very different angle. My question was: how could businesses in the past be profitable, if everything was so slow, unproductive and expensive.

The only answer I have is simple: there was very little to no competition.

In current days we're forced to work like robots, otherwise businesses we're working at may not survive very long as competition is to fierce.

Yours
Piotr