A Dynamic Theory of Competition

What is the relationship between competition and progress? It can be assumed that as of any given moment technologies provide different potentials for satisfying human desires. For example, it can be assumed that if Henry Ford had decided to enter, say, the pin making rather than the automobile business, he would have found in the former a lower potential: even if the elasticity of demand for pins were very high, there simply may have been no real opportunity to bring about a significant reduction in the cost. In other words, the potential as far as pin making was concerned might have been more or less completely exhausted. And if we assume an economy of pin mills, then obviously there could be little or no competition in ideas and no real progress.