Merchants as Heroes. Functions of Entrepreneurship in the Modern Era

Entrepreneurship seems to have reached ubiquity. This development is not confined to its changeable economic functions; instead, entrepreneurship has turned into an ideal integrating entire societies. The entrepreneur impersonates the archetype of modernity, his attributes have been elevated to anthropologic heights since the 17th century, when merchants were trying to distinguish themselves as daring adventurers. They did rather not tend to take the risks they actually evoked, though - whereas even peers made use of entrepreneurial practices without styling themselves entrepreneurs. Economic heroism devolved into accountancy, then praised the paramount science, in the 18th century. At the end of the 19th century, entrepreneurship had been transformed into a social utopia: aspiring workers were meant to realize their hopes by establishing their own businesses. In the 20th century, entrepreneurs finally gained wide territories throughout the mass media, due to the expectation, their leadership would unite dispersing societies. Such a gesture of integration even outshined the respective business models. That is why a conception having gained its original shape by the ambitions of a minority became both acceptable and obligatory for the majority; apparently, it did not anymore produce any obvious losers. The main function of entrepreneurship, as it were, consists in fiction: entrepreneurship took the center stage of modernity. Accordingly, this article is highlighting self-attributions of entrepreneurs as well as attributions in prose and in literature as well as theories in economics. © 2017 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston.