History of entrepreneurship

The original entrepreneurs were traders and merchants. The first known instance of
humans trading comes from New Guinea around 17,000 BCE, where locals exchanged
obsidian, a black volcanic glass used to make hunting arrowheads for other needed
goods. These early entrepreneurs exchanged one set of goods for another.

The First cities

Human civilizations began to spring up near rivers like the Nile, the Tigris and
Euphrates, the Indus, and the Yellow and Yangtze. In the first cities, writing was
developed to keep track of crops. In this period, the first armies developed and the first
city governments were formed. Agricultural settlements had put humanity on a rapidly
developing path toward intellectual and scientific advancement.

Trade Routes Allow Ideas and Memes to Spread

Trade routes between the new cities soon sprang up. Donkeys, horses, and camels
enabled trade caravans between civilizations, moving both goods and ideas. Ships were
built to carry trade over the seas. Networks and hubs soon formed and more complex
structures emerged. Great Pyramids were built in Cairo. Temples were built in Sumeria.

The invention of money

Early trade consisted of barter (one good for another). If Tom had twenty cows and Igor
had eighty hens, and Tom and Igor agreed that one cow was worth four hens, then the
trade could take place. The problem with the barter system, however, was that in order
for a trade to take place, both parties had to want what the other party had. This "co-
incidence of wants" often did not happen. Thus, the demands of growing business and
trade gave rise to a money system. Silver rings or bars are thought to have been used
as money in Ancient Iraq before 2000 B.C. Early forms of money (called specie) would
be often be commodities like seashells, tobacco leaves, large round rocks, or beads.

The creation of markets

With a population spurt starting around 1470, cities, markets, and the volume of trade
grew. Banking, initially started by Ancient Mesopotamians, grew to new heights and
complexities; the guild system expanded; and the idea that a business was an
impersonal entity, with a separate identity from its owner, started to take hold. Silver
imports from the new world drove expanded trade and bookkeepers created
standardized principles for keeping track of a firm’s accounts based on Luca Pacioli’s
accounting advances. Early entrepreneurs, called merchants and explorers, began to
raise capital, take risks, and stimulate economic growth. Capitalism had begun.

Market & Machines

With the advent of a complex marketplace and a system of capitalism, a battle of ideas
raged to explain the sources of wealth and to explain the workings of the market.
Between approximately 1550 and 1800, a philosophy called mercantilism was at the
forefront. The mercantilists had the misguided notions that a country’s wealth was solely
based on how much treasure and gold it could obtain and how much more it exported
than imported. Monopolies and tariffs were promoted and competition and trade were
discouraged. But they had gotten it all wrong.
The Start of the Industrial Age
The Industrial Age truly began in 1712 with the invention of Thomas Newcomen's steam
engine in Devon, Britain. But it wasn't until James Watt's steam engine in 1763 that
things really got moving, enabling work to be done through the movement of pistons
rather than the movement of muscle.

Thomas julian palacios