Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I The Historical Study of Economic Growth and Decline in Early Modern History
- CHAPTER II Agriculture in the Vital Revolution
- CHAPTER III The European Fisheries in Early Modern History
- CHAPTER IV The Changing Patterns of Trade
- CHAPTER V Monetary, Credit and Banking Systems
- CHAPTER VI The Nature of Enterprise
- CHAPTER VII The Organization of Industrial Production
- CHAPTER VIII Government and Society
- Bibliographies
- Fig. 7. Centres of metal production
- Fig. 8. Centres of textile production
- References
CHAPTER VI - The Nature of Enterprise
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I The Historical Study of Economic Growth and Decline in Early Modern History
- CHAPTER II Agriculture in the Vital Revolution
- CHAPTER III The European Fisheries in Early Modern History
- CHAPTER IV The Changing Patterns of Trade
- CHAPTER V Monetary, Credit and Banking Systems
- CHAPTER VI The Nature of Enterprise
- CHAPTER VII The Organization of Industrial Production
- CHAPTER VIII Government and Society
- Bibliographies
- Fig. 7. Centres of metal production
- Fig. 8. Centres of textile production
- References
Summary
A study of the economic processes of any society encompasses a wide variety of topics, all of which are the proper province of the economic historian. Although the rationale of the present study is the same as that of economic history, the history of enterprise gives primary emphasis to only one aspect of economic behaviour: the function of organizing, coordinating, and directing economic agents in the task of producing goods and services. Central to such a study is the entrepreneur. And any true understanding of the historical function of enterprise involves an appreciation of the origins, motives, and opportunities of entrepreneurs; of the techniques at their disposal and the institutions which they create; of the extent to which they innovate, at various levels, in order to attain their ends; of the encouragement which they enjoy, the obstacles which they overcome, and the success which attends their activity.
An examination of the nature of enterprise cannot be confined either to private businessmen or to innovators. Historically, governments have always assumed entrepreneurial functions and organized economic institutions: the early modern State was too important an element in the framework and display of enterprise to be disregarded in a survey such as this. In addition, the approach envisaged here does not pre-suppose any sharp division between ‘creative’ and ‘routine’ enterprise; quite apart from the fact that novelty and tradition are normally intermingled in any branch of entrepreneurial activity, the apparently repetitive aspects of enterprise are frequently as significant, in economic terms, as those which are spectacularly new.
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- The Cambridge Economic History of Europe , pp. 393 - 461Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1977
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