In the conventional theory of the firm as expounded in economics textbooks, someone called an “entrepreneur” sets up his production schedule so that the increment in total cost from producing one more unit of output is just equal to the increment in total revenue which can be expected from selling that last unit. As the theory correctly points out, if the firm were to produce and then sell either more or less than this quantity of goods, the entrepreneur would fail to maximize the net revenue being earned. Under certain conditions – when the firms in the industry are so numerous that no single one of them has a perceptible influence on the others – the output produced will simply be thrown on the market for whatever price it can command, this uncoordinated supply of goods being counterbalanced by the demand for the product in question to determine a unique market price. This is the competitive variant of the basic model. Under other conditions – when a single firm is in a position to influence the industry price directly through its own production and/or pricing decision – the output which equates marginal cost with marginal revenue may simply be thrown on the market for whatever price it can command. Alternately, a price may be set that, given the demand for that product, leads to the same quantity of output being supplied to customers. In either case, one has the monopolistic variant of the same basic model.