Today, entrepreneurship is one of the most profitable activities. It was far from always and not for everyone it was successful, but, nevertheless, survived the most difficult times and still continues to exist. What were the main stages in the development of entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurs of antiquity
This type of activity began to develop along with commodity-money relations. Both in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, the concept of “entrepreneurship” is most associated with trade. In ancient times, the Phoenicians, who founded many colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, first gained the fame of the merchant people. Arising as trade settlements, the colonies eventually became independent states and subjugated significant territories. A striking example is Carthage, which has become a powerful Mediterranean power. Over time, the history of entrepreneurship has replenished with other examples of active trading. The ancient Greeks, who became no less talented sailors than the Phoenicians, traded with various countries of the East and with their colonies scattered along the coast of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. From the Black Sea colonies, wax, leather, honey, grain, and livestock came to Greece. Ivory was brought from Africa. Egypt supplied linen fabrics; Carthage supplied carpets. The Greeks themselves were famous for wine and olive oil.
Some historians believe that the economic structure of ancient civilizations can be called capitalist. After all, private property, commodity-money relations, and export with import were already there. But the predominance of forced, slave labor somehow does not fit with capitalism.
From merchants and artisans to entrepreneurs
The history of entrepreneurship covers the Middle Ages. Here, the main type of entrepreneurial activity was also trading. Old Russian merchants conducted active trade with Byzantium, receiving from there luxury goods and Greek wine, which the princes of Kiev loved to consume. Traded with the countries of the East and the Greek colonies in the Crimea. Entrepreneurs in Russia, as in ancient states, can be attributed to artisans. After all, they, like the merchants, worked for themselves: they produced goods, marketed them, invested in raw materials and equipment.
In medieval Europe, merchants and artisans began to create their own unions, which were called guilds in the trade sector, and workshops in the craft sector. Without these organizations, the history of entrepreneurship would not be complete. Trade unions, such as the Hansa in medieval Germany, over time have become powerful organizations, a kind of state in the state. The workshops that monitored the quality and prices of products later became the basis for the emergence of the first capitalist enterprises - manufactories, where yesterday's craftsmen turned into masters and apprentices became wage workers. However, this was not always the case: often the workshop organization only fettered the development of entrepreneurship. After all, the workshops were not interested either in fluctuations in product prices or in the introduction of new inventions that increased labor productivity.
Entrepreneurship dominates
Entrepreneurship finally went beyond the framework of trade at the end of the Middle Ages. As a matter of fact, from this moment the history of entrepreneurship in our usual sense begins. At the end of the XIV century, the first manufactories appeared - enterprises where manual labor of hired workers was used at all stages of production. In many European countries, the nobility is actively involved in entrepreneurial activity , which begins to engage in commodity farming, raising sheep or growing crops. The 16th century can be considered the time of the appearance of the first joint-stock companies, such as, for example, the Moscow company, created in England to trade with Russia. At the end of the XVII century, the first banks were created on a joint stock basis.
At the end of the XVIII century, a new stage begins in the development of entrepreneurial activity. The first factories appear, where the use of machines increases labor productivity and reduces production costs. The joint-stock form of organization of enterprises is also actively developing, which contributes to the development of large entrepreneurship. In the nineteenth century, capitalist relations finally become dominant in the world economy.
The history of entrepreneurship is not over. This type of activity continues to develop now. Despite the fact that running your own business, especially in the post-Soviet space, is not an easy task, entrepreneurship still does not lose its appeal to many people.