Read "The Clock that Had no Hands" by Herbert Kaufman online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Business is no longer a man to man contact, in which the seller and the buyer establish a "personal" bond, any more than battle is a hand-to-hand grapple wherein bone and muscle and sinew decide the outcome. "Trade" as well as "war" has changed aspect -- "both are now fought at long range".
Just as a present day army of heroes would have no opportunity to display the "individual" valor of its members, just so a merchant who counts upon his direct acquaintanceship for success, is a relic of the past -- "a business dodo".