官方解释：To discover what the author believes about the activities of early trading companies, look at the beginning of the second paragraph. The previous paragraph had ended with the prevailing dismissal of these companies as unimportant. The author begins the second paragraph with a transitional expression, in reality, however, to emphasize a contrasting point of view. The first sentence lists an impressive array of complex activities, and in the next sentence the author notes that the large volume of transactions associated with these activities seems to have necessitated hierarchical management structures. The author believes the complex activities of the early companies required a multi-leveled management structure to oversee them.