NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIPThe term entrepreneur comes from the French and translates between-taker or go-between.Earliest PeriodIn this period the money person (forerunner of the capitalist) entered into a contract with the go-betweento sell his goods. While the capitalist was a passive risk bearer, the merchant bore all the physical andemotional risks.Middle AgesIn this age the term entrepreneur was used to describe both an actor and a person who managedlarge production projects. In such large production projects, this person did not take any risks,managing the project with the resources provided. A typical entrepreneur was the cleric whomanaged architectural projects.17th CenturyIn the 17th century the entrepreneur was a person who entered into a contract with the government toperform a service Richard Cantillon, a noted economist of the 1700s, developed theories of theentrepreneur and is regarded as the founder of the term. He viewed the entrepreneur as a risk takerwho buy[s] at certain price and sell[s] at an uncertain price, therefore operating at a risk.18th CenturyIn the 18th century the person with capital was differentiated from the one who needed capital. Inother words, entrepreneur was distinguished from the capital provider.Many of the inventions developed during this time as was the case with the inventions of EliWhitney and Thomas Edison were unable to finance invention themselves. Both were capital users(entrepreneurs), not capital providers (venture capitalists.) Whitney used expropriated crownproperty. Edison raised capital from private sources.A venture capitalist is a professional money manager who makes risk investments from a pool ofequity capital to obtain a high rate of return on investments.19th and 20th CenturiesIn the late 19th and early 20th centuries, entrepreneurs were viewed mostly from an economicperspective. The entrepreneur contributes his own initiative, skill and ingenuity in planning,organizing and administering the enterprise, assuming the chance of loss and gain.Andrew Carnegie is one of the best examples of this definition, building the American steel industryon of the wonders of industrial world, primarily through his competitiveness rather than creativity.In the middle of the 20th century, the notion of an entrepreneur as an innovator was established