The Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times

Published by Princeton University Press 2010

The Invention of Enterprise

Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times

Edited by: David S. Landes , Joel Mokyr and William J. Baumol

Volume 10 in the series The Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400833580

Overview
Contents

About this book

Whether hailed as heroes or cast as threats to social order, entrepreneurs--and their innovations--have had an enormous influence on the growth and prosperity of nations. The Invention of Enterprise gathers together, for the first time, leading economic historians to explore the entrepreneur's role in society from antiquity to the present. Addressing social and institutional influences from a historical context, each chapter examines entrepreneurship during a particular period and in an important geographic location.

The book chronicles the sweeping history of enterprise in Mesopotamia and Neo-Babylon; carries the reader through the Islamic Middle East; offers insights into the entrepreneurial history of China, Japan, and Colonial India; and describes the crucial role of the entrepreneur in innovative activity in Europe and the United States, from the medieval period to today. In considering the critical contributions of entrepreneurship, the authors discuss why entrepreneurial activities are not always productive and may even sabotage prosperity. They examine the institutions and restrictions that have enabled or impeded innovation, and the incentives for the adoption and dissemination of inventions. They also describe the wide variations in global entrepreneurial activity during different historical periods and the similarities in development, as well as entrepreneurship's role in economic growth. The book is filled with past examples and events that provide lessons for promoting and successfully pursuing contemporary entrepreneurship as a means of contributing to the welfare of society.

The Invention of Enterprise lays out a definitive picture for all who seek an understanding of innovation's central place in our world.

Author / Editor information

David S. Landes is the Coolidge Professor of History and professor emeritus of economics at Harvard University. Joel Mokyr is the Robert Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and professor of economics and history at Northwestern University. William J. Baumol is the Harold Price Professor of Entrepreneurship at New York University's Stern School of Business.

Reviews

The Invention of Enterprise is an important contribution. It will certainly affect key debates in economics and economic history along with the national and regional histories of the areas discussed in the volume.---Jeff Horn, European Legacy

The Invention of Enterprise is a bold, exploratory attempt to answer our most important questions about how entrepreneurship has evolved and what makes it flourish. The volume brings together a stellar cast of economic historians. The important questions and the available evidence for the periods and places analyzed vary tremendously, so authors' approaches must too. Their scope is almost beautifully and absurdly vast, their insights are numerous, and their conclusions are restrained.---Robert Whaples, Books & Culture

I think these essays deserve close consideration, as much for the questions they raise as for the answers they give about innovation and entrepreneurship.---Mansel G. Blackford, EH.Net

"The Invention of Enterprise addresses a topic that has been sorely neglected—the role of the entrepreneur in historical context. The breadth of historical contexts contained in this volume provides compelling evidence that entrepreneurship is important for economic growth and that institutions shape entrepreneurship. This well-researched and well-written book is a pleasure to read."—David Audretsch, Indiana University

A classic, impressive, study for serious students of the subject.

Winner of the 2011 Silver Medal Book Award in Entrepreneurship, Axiom Business

"While entrepreneurship is as old as civilization itself, its history is little known and widely scattered. This book sheds a fascinating light on the prevalence and importance of entrepreneurship across the continents and the millennia. The Invention of Enterprise is sure to lead to a deeper appreciation of this phenomenon."—Josh Lerner, Harvard Business School

Entrepreneurship has a long and varied history, and academics explore its evolution in The Invention of Enterprise. Edited by [Landes, Baumol, and Mokyr], the book collects essays from the editors and 18 other economists and historians. They look for commonalities in the societies that prospered--or failed to prosper--from entrepreneurial innovation, and they note that entrepreneurship is directly affected by the prevailing culture and religion.

The Invention of Enterprise offers a timely contribution to our emerging understanding of entrepreneurship in an historical context and is particularly worthwhile for readers who are interested in certain rich historical episodes that are nevertheless little known.---Michaël Bikard and Scott Stern, Journal of Economic Literature

"The modern world became wealthy by shifting toward productive entrepreneurship. How did this happen? How might it continue to happen? Read this book—the first comprehensive history of entrepreneurship—and find out. It's a remarkable work of scholarship."—Richard Sylla, New York University

"There are other books on the history of entrepreneurship, but The Invention of Enterprise offers a substantial and fresh approach. These top-notch economic historians cover a vast geographic span and broad period of time."—William J. Hausman, College of William and Mary

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Foreword Carl J. Schramm Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Preface.The Entrepreneur in History William J. Baumol Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments William J. Baumol and Robert J. Strom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Introduction. Global Enterprise and Industrial Performance: An Overview David S. Landes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. Entrepreneurs: From the Near Eastern Takeoff to the Roman Collapse Michael Hudson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	8
Chapter 2. Neo-Babylonian Entrepreneurs Cornelia Wunsch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
Chapter 3. The Scale of Entrepreneurship in Middle Eastern History: Inhibitive Roles of Islamic Institutions Timur Kuran Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
Chapter 4. Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship in Medieval Europe James M. Murray Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
Chapter 5. Tawney’s Century, 1540–1640: The Roots of Modern Capitalist Entrepreneurship John Munro Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
Chapter 6. The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic Oscar Gelderblom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
Chapter 7. Entrepreneurship and the Industrial Revolution in Britain Joel Mokyr Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Chapter 8. Entrepreneurship in Britain, 1830–1900 Mark Casson and Andrew Godley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Chapter 9. History of Entrepreneurship: Britain, 1900–2000 Andrew Godley and Mark Casson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Chapter 10. History of Entrepreneurship Germany after 1815 Ulrich Wengenroth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Chapter 11. Entrepreneurship in France Michel Hau Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
Chapter 12. Entrepreneurship in the Antebellum United States Louis P. Cain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331
Chapter 13. Entrepreneurship in the United States, 1865–1920 Naomi R. Lamoreaux Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	367
Chapter 14. Entrepreneurship in the United States, 1920–2000 Margaret B. W. Graham Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	401
Chapter 15. An Examination of the Supply of Financial Credit to Entrepreneurs in Colonial India Susan Wolcott Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	443
Chapter 16. Chinese Entrepreneurship since Its Late Imperial Period Wellington K. K. Chan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	469
Chapter 17. Entrepreneurship in Pre–World War II Japan: The Role and Logic of the Zaibatsu Seiichiro Yonekura and Hiroshi Shimizu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	501
Chapter 18. “Useful Knowledge” of Entrepreneurship: Some Implications of the History William J. Baumol and Robert J. Strom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	527
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	543
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	545

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