Richard cantillon definition of entrepreneurship
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Introduction
Richard Cantillon is now acknowledged as the first economic theorist and rightly deserves to be known as the father of economics. William Stanley Jevons, who is credited for rediscovering Cantillon and one of the co-founders of the Marginal Revolution called the Essai “a systematic and connected treatise, going over in a concise manner nearly the whole field of economics… It is thus the first treatise on economics.” Joseph Schumpeter called the Essai “the first systematic penetration of the field of economics. It bears the stamp of a scientific spirit.” Joseph J. Spengler famously dubbed Cantillon the “first of the moderns.” F.A. Hayek described Cantillon as “the first person to succeed in penetrating and surveying nearly the entire range of what today we call economics.” Murray N. Rothbard named Cantillon “the founding father of modern economics.” Thornton (1998) provides a full description of Cantillon as the originator of economic theory.
Despite all this high praise from the leaders of the field
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Tragically, despite being a significant influence on the early development of the Physiocrat and Classical schools of economic thought, Cantillon’s Essai was largely forgotten until the late nineteenth century, when it was rediscovered by the celebrated British economist William Stanley Jevons. A series of mishaps, beginning with a sloppy English translation, were to result in the Essai being poorly received outside France. Added to this, the first English publisher somehow inverted the names of the book’s author and its original French publisher in his initial publication. The date of publication was also confused, so that the work was for a time assumed to have copied the theories of the Scottish economist David Hume, when in fact Hume’s ideas were anticipated by Cantillon.
In 1734, a year after arriving in London, Cantillon’s home on Albemarle Street was mysteriously burned to the ground. Many of his papers were destroyed and it is generally assumed that he died in the fire. While the fire’s cause is unclear, the most widely accepted theory is that Cantillon was murdered. It
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Richard Cantillon
Irish-French economist and banker (c. 1680 – 1734)
Richard Cantillon (French:[kɑ̃tijɔ̃]; 1680s – May 1734) was an Irish-French economist and author of Essai Sur La Nature Du Commerce En Général (Essay on the Nature of Trade in General), a book considered by William Stanley Jevons to be the "cradle of political economy".[4] Although little information exists on Cantillon's life, it is known that he became a successful banker and merchant at an early age. His success was largely derived from the political and business connections he made through his family and through an early employer, James Brydges. During the late 1710s and early 1720s, Cantillon speculated in, and later helped fund, John Law's Mississippi Company, from which he acquired great wealth. However, his success came at a cost to his debtors, who pursued him with lawsuits, criminal charges, and even murder plots until his death in 1734.
Essai remains Cantillon's only surviving contribution to economics. It was written around 1730 and circulated widely in manuscript