Die Entstehung des modernen Unternehmens: Einführende Bemerkungen

The article investigates two issues, currently widely neglected: the fact that enterprises did not become the dominant form of organisation for the production of goods and services in western economies until after 1800; and that these institutions did not play a major role in the Early Modern Age. It argues that the understanding of modern enterprises as industrial-technical organisations and the production of machinery as the sole cause for the evolvement of modern companies – which has dominated up until now – as lacking, as numerous service companies had already developed in the early phase of industrialisation. Based on a functional concept of enterprises, the article attributes the early modern proto-enterprises a major role before 1800 and elaborates on what conditions were necessary to allow for the plentiful occurrence of modern enterprises in the phase of early industrialisation. In so doing it elucidates a clearer understanding of how modern enterprises institutionalised over time.