DOI: / The Entrepreneur in History

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1 The Entrepreneur in History

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3 The Entrepreneur in History: From Medieval Merchant to Modern Business Leader Mark Casson Professor of Economics,University of Reading and Catherine Casson Research Fellow, Winton Institute for Monetary History, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford and Teaching Fellow, School of History and Cultures, University of Birmingham

4 Mark Casson and Catherine Casson 2013 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 ISBN All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

5 Contents List of Tables Preface and Acknowledgements vi vii 1 A New Research Agenda 1 2 Perspectives on Entrepreneurship 12 3 The Historical Significance of the Entrepreneur 42 4 Case Studies: The Entrepreneur in Context 67 5 The Social Embeddedness of Entrepreneurship 120 Index 135 v

6 List of Tables 1.1 Different ways in which entrepreneurs have been defined Schumpeter s classification of innovations Three types of knowledge exploited in innovation, and generated by different types of people Revolutions as clustered innovations Some terms potentially designating an entrepreneur Obstacles allegedly overcome by entrepreneurs in effecting revolutions Historical research on entrepreneurship: scope and limitations of primary sources 64 vi

7 Preface and Acknowledgements This book was written especially for the Palgrave Pivot series. It sets out a new research agenda and reports some key findings. It is intended to be authoritative but also provocative. We are grateful to Virginia Thorp of Palgrave Macmillan for her support and encouragement. The research for this book involved an extensive review of the literature, which led to the identification of a set of 60 key articles. These articles, together with selected book excerpts, are reprinted in a research collection, The History of Entrepreneurship: Innovation and Risk-taking, , which can be studied in conjunction with this book. Parts of Chapter 2 were presented at a conference organised by the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Henley Business School, University of Reading, 2012; parts of Chapter 3 at the Annual Conference of the Association of Business Historians at Reading, 2011; and parts of Chapter 4 at the Conference on New Business History at the University of York, Valuable comments were received from discussants in each case. Some of the material has formed the basis for lectures to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the School of History and Cultures, University of Birmingham and the Henley Business School, University of Reading. We are grateful to the students and to colleagues for their positive feedback and for the suggestions they have made. Last but not least, we are indebted to Janet Casson for proof-reading the manuscript and for moral support. vii