[88] .... The entrepreneur who succeeds in the individual whose behaviour and decisions are founded on an accurate understanding of the realities of the business world,and such realities are constantly changing. In a situation of low business ehtics and considerable instability, as doubtless prevailed in Britain throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the successful entrepreneur will be the individual who is able to create and sustain a stable business institution with a reputation for moral integrity. This is essential since a great deal of entrepreneurial activity in a market economy will focus on the need to improve trading arrangements through the reduction of transaction costs, and such costs are high in a low-morality environment. [M. Casson, 'Entrepreneurship and Business Culture', in J. Brown and M.B. Rose (eds.), Entrepreneurship, Networks and Modern Business (Manchester, 1993), p. 31, 38.] In the absence of state regulation, the only way of achieving reduced transaction costs is to link the reputation of the market insitution, that is the firm, to some organisation or institution that is non-market defined and innately identified with high levels of morality. Certain religious communities, notably Quakers in the 18th century, did this very effectively by harnessing beliefs and values that were characteristics of the sect and reinventing them as business virtues. Quakers traded amongs themselves in an environment that was informally policed by the norms of their sect, and they also secured a high reputation with non-Quaker business owners. Religious institutions and business were was also volatile, especially in big towns, and not without its own