Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Case Studies: The Entrepreneur in Context

  • Chapter
The Entrepreneur in History: From Medieval Merchant to Modern Business Leader

Abstract

This chapter presents case studies which illustrate the range of primary and secondary source material available for the study of entrepreneurship and illustrate points made in Chapter 3. These primarily relate to England, where the available evidence is particularly chronologically complete, but international comparisons are also provided. Some case studies focus on a particular episode in an individual’s life in which they overcame an obstacle, made a major achievement or attracted particular attention from their contemporaries. Other case studies examine how entrepreneurs reconciled their personal life and business activities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Further reading

For an insightful discussion of the scope of biography in business history, and for additional references see

  • Corley, T. A. B. (2006) ‘Historical Biographies of Entrepreneurs’, in M. Casson, B. Yeung, A. Basu and N. Wadeson (eds) Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurship (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 138–57.

    Google Scholar 

Complementary reference works giving more detail on some of the cases presented above are

  • Casson, M. (ed.) (2011) Markets and Market Institutions (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar).

    Google Scholar 

  • Casson, M., and C. Casson, (eds) (2013) History of Entrepreneurship: Innovation and Risk-taking 1200–2000 (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar).

    Book  Google Scholar 

For other collections of business history case studies see the following; they focus mainly on the Industrial Revolution and the evolution of the modern corporation.

  • Alon, I. and W. Zhang (2011) Biographical Dictionary of New Chinese Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, N. A. (1999) American Business Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present, 2 vols (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeremy, D. (ed.) (1984) Dictionary of Business Biography: A Biographical Dictionary of Business Leaders Active in Britain in the Period 1860–1980, 5 vols (London: Butterworth).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeremy, D. and G. Tweedale (eds) (2005) Business History, 4 vols. (London: Sage).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, G. G. and R. D. Wadhwani (eds) (2007) Entrepreneurship and Global Capitalism (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar).

    Google Scholar 

  • Livesay, H. C. (ed.) (1995) Entrepreneurship and the Growth of Firms (Aldershot: Edward Elgar).

    Google Scholar 

  • Slaven, A. and S. G. Checkland (eds) (1986–90) Dictionary of Scottish Business Biography, 1860–1960, 2 vols. (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press).

    Google Scholar 

For a global view of the history of entrepreneurship compiled from national studies see

  • Landes, D. S., J. Mokyr and W. Baumol (eds) (2010) The Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).

    Google Scholar 

Richard Whittington

  • Barron, C.M. (1969) ‘Richard Whittington: The Man Behind the Myth’, in A. E. J. Hollaender and William Kellaway (eds), Studies in London History Presented to Philip Edmund Jones (London: Hodder and Stoughton), 197–248.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barron, C. M. (2004) London in the Later Middle Ages: Government and People 1200–1500 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Imray, J. M. (1968) The Charity of Richard Whittington: A History of the Trust Administered by the Mercers’ Company, 1424–1966 (London: Athlone).

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, A. F. (2005) The Mercery of London: Trade, Goods and People, 1130–1578 (Aldershot: Ashgate).

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, A. F. (2004) ‘Whittington, Richard (c.1350–1423)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford; Oxford University Press). http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29330,date accessed 20 March 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • A transcription in modern English of Whittington’s will can be found at Medieval English Towns http://users.trytel.com/~tristan/towns/ florilegium/community/cmreli17.html, date accessed 20 March 2013.

A London merchant of the fourteenth century

  • James, M. (1956) ‘A London Merchant of the Fourteenth Century’, Economic History Review, New Series, 8, 364–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

A politically networked merchant: William de la Pole

  • Fryde, E. B. (1988) William de la Pole: Merchant and King’s Banker (London and Ronceverte: Hambledon Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, A. S. (1957) The De La Pole Family of Kingston-upon-Hull (Beverley: East Yorkshire Record Society).

    Google Scholar 

  • Horrox, R. (1983) The De La Poles of Hull (Beverley: East Yorkshire Local History Society).

    Google Scholar 

  • Sayles, G. (1931) ‘The “English Company” of 1343 and a Merchant’s Oath’, Speculum, 6, 177–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fryde, E. B. (2004) ‘Pole, Sir William de la (d. 1366)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, Oxford University Press) online edn., Jan 2008 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22460, accessed 20 March 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fryde, E. B. (1983) ‘The Wool Accounts of William de la Pole: A Study of Some Aspects of the English Wool Trade at the Start of the Hundred Years’ War’, reprinted in E. B. Fryde, Studies in Medieval Trade and Finance (London: The Hambledon Press), 3–31.

    Google Scholar 

Farmers of the customs

  • Fryde, E. B. (1983)’ some Business Transactions of York Merchants, 1336–1349’, reprinted in E. B. Fryde, Studies in Medieval Trade and Finance (London: The Hambledon Press), 3–37.

    Google Scholar 

Exploitation of mineral resources

  • Britnell, R. H. (2012) ‘The Coal Industry in the Later Middle Ages: The Bishop of Durham’s Estates’, in M. Bailey and S. Rigby (eds) Town and Countryside in the Age of the Black Death: Essays in Honour of John Hatcher (Brepols: Turnhout), 439–67.

    Google Scholar 

Property development in a medieval city

  • Baker, N. and R. Holt (2008) Urban Growth and the Medieval Church: Gloucester and Worcester (Ashgate: Aldershot).

    Google Scholar 

  • Holt, R. (1990) ‘Gloucester in the Century after the Black Death’, in R. Holt and G. Rosser (eds) The Medieval Town: A Reader in English Urban History 1200–1540 (Longman, London and New York), 141–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langton, J. (1977) ‘Late Medieval Gloucester: Some Data from a Rental of 1455’, Institute of British Geographers, New Series 2, 259–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson, W. H. (ed.) (1891) Rental of All the Houses in Gloucester AD 1455 from a Roll in the Possession of the Gloucester compiled by R. Cole (Gloucester: The Corporation of Gloucester).

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorpe, Lewis (trans. and ed.) (1978) Gerald of Wales: The Journey Through Wales and The Description of Wales (London: Penguin).

    Google Scholar 

Improving the walls

  • Aberth, J. (1996) Criminal Churchmen in the Age of Edward III: The Case of Bishop Thomas de Lisle (Pennsylvania: Penn State Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, W. and J. Cottingham Tingey (eds) (1910) The Records of the City of Norwich, vol. 2 (Norwich: Jarrold), 216–25, also available at English Medieval Towns http://users.trytel.com/~tristan/towns/florilegium/government/gvdef10.html accessed 20 March 2013.

    Google Scholar 

Building a town bridge

  • Cox, M. (1986) The Story of Abingdon Part 1 (Abingdon: Leach’s).

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, M. (1989) Medieval Abingdon: The Story of Abingdon Part 2 (Abingdon: Leach’s).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ditchfield, P. H. and W. Page (eds) (1924) The Victoria History of the County of Berkshire 4 vols., vol. 4 (London: The St Catherine Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, D. (2004) The Bridges of Medieval England: Transport and Society 400–1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Masschaele, J. (1993) ‘Transport Costs in Medieval England’, Economic History Review, 2nd Series, 46, 266–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toulmin Smith, L. (ed.) (1964) Leland’s Itinerary in England and Wales, 5 vols., vol. 5 (London: Centaur Press), 116–18.

    Google Scholar 

The quote is from

  • Curry, A. (ed.) (2013) ‘Henry V: Parliament of December 1421, Text and Translation’, in C. Given Wilson, P. Brand, A. Curry, R. E. Horrox, G. Martin, M. Ormrod and J. R. S. Phillips (eds) The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, http://www.sd-editions.com/PROME, accessed on 24 February 2013.

    Google Scholar 

New technology in medieval England: the miller as entrepreneur

  • Langdon, J. (2004) Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1200–1540 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, J. and N. Ramsay (eds) (1991) English Medieval Industries: Craftsmen, Techniques, Products (London and Rio Grande: Hambledon Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Britnell, R. (1986) Growth and Decline in Colchester 1300–1525 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, J. (2012) Medieval Market Morality: Life, Law and Ethics in the English Marketplace, 1200–1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hassall, W. O. (1973) They Saw It Happen, Volume 1, 55BC-1485 (London and Southampton: Camelot Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeayes, I. H. (ed.) (1921–41) Court Rolls of the Borough of Colchester 3 vols, vol. 1 (Colchester: Colchester Borough Council).

    Google Scholar 

  • Keene, D. (1985) Survey of Medieval Winchester, 2 vols, vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kowaleski, M. (1995) Local Markets and Regional Trade in Medieval Exeter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

Profiting from land enclosure: a country farmer of the early sixteenth century

  • Dyer, C. (2012) A Country Merchant, 1495–1520: Trading and Farming at the End of the Middle Ages (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

Jack o’ Newbury: A sixteenth century factory master

  • Jackson, C. (2008) ‘Boom-time Freaks or Heroic Industrial Pioneers? Clothing Entrepreneurs in Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth-century Berkshire’, Textile History, 39, 145–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peacock, D. (2003) ‘The Winchcombe Family and the Woollen Industry in Sixteenth-century Newbury’ (unpublished University of Reading PhD thesis).

    Google Scholar 

Entrepreneurial social networking

  • Barron, C. M. (2004) London in the Later Middle Ages: Government and People 1200–1500 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Krammer, S. (1968) The English Craft Gilds and the Government: An Examination of the Accepted Theory Regarding the Decay of Craft Gilds, 2nd. edn. (New York: Columbia University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lunn, J. (1984) The Register of the Fraternity of the Holy and Undivided Trinity and the Blessed Virgin Mary in Luton Parish Church 1474–1546 (Dunstable).

    Google Scholar 

  • McKendrick, S., J. Lowden and K. Doyle (eds) (2011) Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosser, G. (1994) ‘Going to the Fraternity Feast: Commensality and Social Relations in Late Medieval England’, Journal of British Studies, 33, 430–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosser, G. (1997) ‘Crafts, Guilds and the Negotiation of Work in the Medieval Town’, Past and Present, 154, 3–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tearle, B. (ed.) (2012) The Accounts of the Guild of the Holy Trinity, Luton 1526–7–1546–7 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press for the Bedfordshire Record Society).

    Google Scholar 

The chartered trading company as an institutional innovation

  • Carlos, A. M. and S. Nicholas (1988) ‘“Giants of an Earlier Capitalism”: The Chartered Trading Companies as Modern Multinationals’, Business History Review, 62, 398–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlos, A. M. and S. Nicholas (1996) ‘Theory and History: Seventeenthcentury Joint-stock Chartered Trading Companies’, Journal of Economic History, 56, 916–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, S. R. H. and S. P. Ville (1996) ‘Theory and Evidence: Understanding Chartered Trading Companies’, Journal of Economic History, 56, 925–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

The East India Company

  • Coleman, D. C. (1963) Sir John Banks, Baronet and Businessman: A Study of Business, Politics and Society in Later Stuart England (Oxford: The Clarendon Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Tawney, R. H. (1958) Business and Politics under James I: Lionel Cranfield as Merchant and Minister (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamamoto, K. (2011) ‘Piety, Profit and Public Service in the Financial Revolution’, English Historical Review, 126, 806–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Women speculators in the South Sea bubble

  • Laurence, A. (2006) ‘Women Investors, “The Nasty South Sea Affair” and the Rage to Speculate in Early Eighteenth-century England’, Accounting, Business and Financial History, 16, 245–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laurence, A. (2008) ‘The Emergence of a Private Clientele for Banks in the Early Eighteenth Century: Hoare’s Bank and Some Women Customers’, Economic History Review, 61, 565–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Pioneers in technology and marketing

  • Jones, P. M. (2008) ‘Industrial Enlightenment in Practice: Visitors to the Soho Manufactory, 1766–1820’, Midland History 33, 68–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macleod, C. (1999) ‘Negotiating the Rewards of Invention: The Shopfloor Inventor in Victorian Britain’, Business History, 41, 17–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tann, J. (1978) ‘Marketing Methods in the International Steam Engine Market: The Case of Boulton and Watt’, Journal of Economic History, 38, 363–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tann, J. (2007) ‘Watt, James (1736–1819)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2007, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/28880, accessed 7 March 2013.

    Google Scholar 

Building the Industrial Revolution

  • Cooney, E. W. (1955) ‘The Origins of Victorian Master Builders’, Economic History Review, 8, 167–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Summerson, J. (1970) Georgian London, 2nd. edn. (London: Barrie and Jenkins).

    Google Scholar 

Quakers and chocolate: the paternalistic Cadburys

  • Cadbury, D. (2011) Chocolate Wars: From Cadbury to Kraft: 200 Years of Sweet Success and Bitter Rivalry (London: Harper Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, H. V. (2012) ‘Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury (1858–1951): Religion, Maternalism and Social Reform in Birmingham, 1888–1914’ (University of Birmingham unpublished PhD thesis).

    Google Scholar 

  • Suburban Birmingham: Spaces & Places, 1880–1960 http://www.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/ accessed 20 March 2013.

Quakers and Guns: an unusual combination

  • Smith, B. D. (1967) ‘The Galtons of Birmingham: Quaker Gun merchants and Bankers, 1702–1831’, Business History, 9, 132–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Making a market in news: the origins of Reuters

  • Read, D. (1992) The Power of News: The History of Reuters (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

A shipping magnate in the Age of Imperialism

  • Jones, S. (1989) Trade and Shipping: Lord Inchcape 1852–1932 (Manchester: Manchester University Press)

    Google Scholar 

Women shipowners

  • Doe, H. (2009) Enterprising Women and Shipping in the Nineteenth Century (Woodbridge: Boydell Press).

    Google Scholar 

An artistic entrepreneur

  • Briggs, A. (ed.) (1977) William Morris Selected Writings and Designs (Harmondsworth: Penguin).

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, C. and J. Press (1986) ‘William Morris and the Marketing of Art’, Business History, 28, 36–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacCarthy, F. (2009) ‘Morris, William (1834–1896)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn., October 2009 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19322, date accessed 16 October 2012.

    Google Scholar 

Origins of a modern supermarket chain

  • Kennedy, C. (2000) The Merchant Princes: Family, Fortune and Philanthropy: Cadbury, Sainsbury and John Lewis (London: Hutchinson).

    Google Scholar 

  • Philips, S. and A. Alexander (2005) ‘An Efficient Pursuit? Independent Shopkeepers in 1930s Britain’, Enterprise and Society, 6, 278–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, B. (1994) The Best Butter in the World: A History of Sainsbury’s (London: Ebury Press).

    Google Scholar 

Jewish merchants in the Middle East

  • Goldberg, J. (2012) Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean: The Geniza Merchants and their Business World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, J. and S. Ogilvie (2012) ‘Contract Enforcement, Institutions, and Social Capital: The Maghribi Traders Reappraised’, Economic History Review, 65, 421–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greif, A. (2012) ‘The Maghribi Traders: A Reappraisal?’, Economic History Review, 65, 445–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greif, A. (1989) ‘Reputation and Coalitions in Medieval Trade: Evidence on the Maghribi Traders’, Journal of Economic History, 49, 857–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Princeton Geniza Project (2012) http://gravitas.princeton.edu/tg/tt, date accessed 21 September 2012.

Enterprising monks in the French property market

  • Brittain Bouchard, C. (1991) Holy Entrepreneurs: Cistercians, Knights and Economic Exchange in Twelfth-Century Burgundy (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, A. R. and R. S. Dale (2011) ‘The Medieval Pilgrimage Business’, Enterprise and Society, 12, 601–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birch, D. J. (1992) ‘Selling the Saints: Competition Amongst Pilgrimage Centres in the Twelfth Century’, Medieval History, 2(2), 20–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekelund, R. B. Jr., R. F. Hebert and R. D. Tollison (2006) The Marketplace of Christianity (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press). ai]Ekelund, R. B. Jr., R. D. Tollison, G. M. Anderson, R. F. Hébert and A. B. Davidson (1996) Sacred Trust: The Medieval Church as an Economic Firm (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

Medieval brewers of Japan

  • Gay, S. (2001) The Moneylenders of Medieval Kyoto (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press).

    Google Scholar 

An Italian merchant

  • Nigro, G. (ed.) (2010) Francesco di Marco Datini: The Man the Merchant (Firenze: Firenze University Press for Fondazione Istituto Internazionale de Storia Economica ‘F. Datini’).

    Google Scholar 

  • Origo, I. (1963) The Merchant of Prato: Daily Life in a Medieval Italian City (Harmondsworth: Penguin).

    Google Scholar 

Portfolio property development in California

  • Friedricks, W. B. (1989) ‘A Metropolitan Entrepreneur Par Excellence: Henry E. Huntington and the Growth of Southern California, 1898–1927’, Business History Review, 63, 329–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Reading, UK

    Mark Casson (Professor of Economics)

  2. Winton Institute for Monetary History, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK

    Catherine Casson (Research Fellow, Teaching Fellow)

  3. School of History and Cultures, University of Birmingham, UK

    Catherine Casson (Research Fellow, Teaching Fellow)

Authors
  1. Mark Casson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Catherine Casson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2013 Mark Casson and Catherine Casson

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Casson, M., Casson, C. (2013). Case Studies: The Entrepreneur in Context. In: The Entrepreneur in History: From Medieval Merchant to Modern Business Leader. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137305824_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation