Dacasin, Nicole Anne K.

The Entrepreneurial Mind

BSMT2B Ms. Gaufo

Activity #1
Week 2

Earliest Period

A famous entrepreneur in this period was Marco Polo, a famous Italian merchant who
used trade routes to the Far East. He was the rst entrepreneur in the modern sense of the
world. The historian discovered that he had multiple contracts to be agreed on for him to sell
his goods. They took a loan at the rate of 22.5 percent, including insurance, a condition of the
deal. This became the rst proof of risk-taking. In this period, a capitalist was the risk-bearer,.
On the other hand, the adventurer bears all the physical and emotional risks in trading. If the
merchant-adventurer sold the goods successfully, the pro t will be eventually divided among
them. The capitalist got the maximum part up to 75%, and merchant-adventurer took the
remaining 25%.

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Middle Ages

The Middle Ages were not entirely the paragon of opportunity for merchants. Both the
Middle East and Mediterranean Europe have played an important part in the development of
entrepreneurship in the Middle Ages. Meanwhile, Chinese civilization was not only one
established in merchant by the medieval period, both Christian Europe and the Islamic world
play a vital role as well. Unsurprisingly, several successful entrepreneurs emerged in the Middle
Ages .The medieval era's notable entrepreneur was the church. It was, maybe, the biggest
economic leader in Europe. Christians paid their tithes to fathers even though they were in
economic distress, for fear of God. So, the priest was a typical entrepreneur of that time.

17th Century

John Law Richard Cantillon

In the 17th century, the risk factor of entrepreneurship emerged fully. As we found, John
Law, in that era, a merchant from France was the entrepreneur in that period. He was the
founder of the royal bank of France and established the Mississippi Company, which both had
an excellent franchise to trade between motherland France and the new world. The collapse of
the company was caused by the monopoly in French trade. At the beginning of the 17th
century, however, Richard Cantillon was able to understand Law’s mistake. Cantillon was a
famous English economist in this era. He judged an entrepreneur as a risk-taker. By observing
the craftsmen, farmers, and merchants, he realized they were buying at a certain price and
selling at an uncertain price. Which, as a result, means they were operating a risk.

18th Century

Eli Whitney Thomas Edison’s Cotton Gin

Thomas Edison

The entrepreneur had distinguished himself from the supplier of capital throughout the
century. That implies that the individual with capital was di erentiated from the one who
required capital. 200 years of entrepreneurship was hugely fueled by markets and machines.
One of the core reasons of this was the industrialization revolution throughout the world.
Capitalism is enormously rooted in cultures around the world. Hence, in Adam Smith's popular
book The Wealth of Nations in 1776, the theory of capitalism is created. The whole de nition of
typical mercantilism was ruined by him. Eli Whitney, an American inventor prominent for
inventing the cotton gin, was one of the key inventors of the Industrial Revolution. Other than
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this, Thomas Edison, a famous inventor of many inventions at the time, was the one who
applied new technology. He was one of the well-known entrepreneurs in the 18th century.

Late 19th & Early 20th Century

Andrew Carnegie

The entrepreneurship phase was seen as an economic prospect in the 19th and early
20th centuries. For his or her bene t, the entrepreneur manages and organizes an organization.
Moreover, entrepreneurs were not distinguished from managers and were viewed mostly from
an economic perspective. “The materials consumed in the business, for the use of the land, for
the services he employs, and for the capital he requires.” Andrew Carnegie is one of the best
examples of this de nition. He was descended from a poor Scottish family, but he made the
American Steel Industry one of the wonders of the industrial world.

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Middle 20th Century

John Morgan
Edward Harriman

In this period, the function of the entrepreneurs is to recreate or revolutionize the

pattern of production by introducing an invention. Innovation, which is the act of introducing
some new ideas, was and is still one of the most di cult tasks for the entrepreneur. In the
Middle 20th Century, some of the most popular entrepreneurs were Edward Harriman and John
Morgan. Harriman was the one who reorganized the railroad in the United States. On the other
hand, Morgan developed his large banking house by reorganizing and nancing the nation’s
industries.
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