ABSTRACT
[I]t may be laid down that except the Prince and the Proprietors of Land, all the Inhabitants of a State … can be divided into two classes, Undertakers [Fr., Entrepreneurs] and Hired people; and that all the Undertakers are as it were on unfixed wages and the others on wages fixed so long as they receive them though their functions and ranks may be very unequal. The General who has his pay, the Courtier his pension and the Domestic servant who has wages all fall into this last class. All the rest are Undertakers, whether they set up with a capital [un fond] to conduct their enterprise, or are Undertakers of their own labour without capital, and they may be regarded as living at uncertainty [l'incertain]; the Beggars even and the Robbers are Undertakers of this class.
