This paper discusses firms and markets in 19th century England and early 20th century United States with a view to highlighting the role played by institutional and historical arrangements in the entrepreneurial activity. In this light, markets and firms are structured according to historical patterns that represent solutions for the coordination problem, with specific institutional arrangements canalizing and restricting actions. Institutional structures are present as entrepreneurial environments rather than mere arrangements between two or more firms. Institutional solutions are located in time and space. The discussion stresses the major importance of the institutional environment as far as the coordination of economic activity is concerned.