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