History & Definition of Entrepreneurship

The Beginnings of Entrepreneurship and Trade

• The first entrepreneurs can be traced back to nearly 20,000 years ago.
• The first known trading between humans took place in New Guinea around 17,000 BCE.
• Hunter-gatherer tribes would trade goods from different parts of their respective regions to provide an overall benefit for their tribe.

Entrepreneurship and the Agricultural Revolution

• By specializing in different professions, members of the community could trade valuable goods for food. These were the earliest entrepreneurs in human civilization. Some common areas of specialization included:
• Hunting and gathering
• Fishing 
• Cooking
• Tool-making 
• Shelter-building
• Clothes-making
• As time went on, new areas of specialization began to emerge. Early entrepreneurs would work in areas like: 
• Pottery
• Carpentry 
• Wool-making 
• Masonry 
• Clothes-making

The Expansion of Trade Routes

As cities sprang up around the world, entrepreneurship took an important turn. Entrepreneurs were still specializing in all of the areas listed above (pottery, carpentry, tool-making, etc.). There are certain points listed below which explains the reasons of expansion of trade route.

• 
    The right international trade route could make an entrepreneur very wealthy. Some of the popular trade routes at the time included:
• Trading salt from Africa across the Roman Empire 
• Trading technologies like Chinese paper-making around the world 
• Trading rice from China across Asia 
• Trading coffee, lemons, and oranges from Arabia into Europe
• Trading complex ideas like the Arabic number system into Europe (this occurred in the year 1200 thanks to an Italian trader named Leonardo Fibonacci). 
• Trading gunpowder (a combination of carbon, Sulphur, and potassium nitrate) from China to other parts of the world.

Entrepreneurship and the Invention of Money

One of the key developments in the history of entrepreneurship (and in human history) was the invention of money. Currency changed all that. Over time, paper money and coinage would be developed. Currency gave entrepreneurs several important things:

• It facilitated long-distance trade
• It acted as a medium of exchange 
• It provided a way for entrepreneurs to store value

Entrepreneurship and the Beginnings of the Marketplace in the Medieval Period

The Industrial Revolution marked yet another profound shift in the history of entrepreneurship. Starting in the 18th century, entrepreneurship moved from small-scale production in small towns to large-scale production in big cities. 

Two things fueled this fundamental change in entrepreneurship, including: 

• Availability of Energy Production 
• Availability of Labor

Availability of Energy Production

Businesses were no longer restricted by small-scale energy powered by wind (which was weather dependent) or falling water (which was location dependent). 

Availability of Labor

Huge populations began moving to Industrial Revolution cities starting in the 1700s. This gave entrepreneurs a large pool of cheap labor with which to work.

Post World War II Entrepreneurship

• The economy was increasingly global and becoming more global every decade. Better means of shipping and communication made it easy for entrepreneurs to sell products and services to a global audience. 
• Microeconomic factors like the number of people owning cars. Especially in America, car ownership made it more important to have highways between major cities. 
• The environment where entrepreneurs like Ray Kroc made their millions. 
• Countries around the world experienced similar boosts in growth following World War II. Japan, for example, became one of the world’s largest economies by exploiting a large population available for cheap wages. Germany experienced a similar trajectory.

Modern Entrepreneurship

• The global economy – combined with modern infrastructure and communications – has introduced a new age of competition to the world of entrepreneurship.
• Many of these entrepreneurs can access cheaper means of production than you. They may have better access to raw resources of cheap labor. This has made modern entrepreneurship more challenging – and arguably more rewarding – than ever before.
• Early entrepreneurs in the Agricultural Revolution met the needs of farmers by providing them with tools and shelter. 
• Entrepreneurship changed dramatically but the core reasons for entrepreneurship remained the same. 
• Competition has ensured that the entrepreneur’s self-interest doesn’t cause an overall negative impact on society.
  

Indian System of Entrepreneurship

• In the pre colonial times the Indian trade and business was at its peak. Indians were experts in smelting of metals such as brass and tin. 
• Portuguese and the English had captured the Indian sea waters and slowly entered the Indian business. They forced the entrepreneurs to become traders and they themselves took the role of entrepreneurs.
• India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by widespread nonviolent resistance.
• Economic reforms since 1991 have transformed it into one of the fastest growing economies however, it still suffers from high levels of poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition.