ABSTRACT
The role of the incentive in inaugurating processes of economic development has become a significant subject of modern economic and historical research. This incentive is no abstract notion; it is an effective attitude of mind inseparable from its carrier, usually the ‘entrepreneur’, whose activities are fraught with such important consequences for modern economic history. For the greater part of the period since the industrial revolution, this entrepreneur has been recognised as the driving force in the formation of Western industrial society. The entrepreneur might have been an industrialist with novel ideas on production; he might have been a merchant or an engineer with new business designs; he might have worked singly or as a member of a group. The motives which have driven him in his activities may have varied widely. In any event, it is he who was primarily responsible for the economic and technical advance of Western society.
