The Unfortunate Legacy
Yet aside from these common wisdoms, Smith, where he had opportunity to do so, missed the mark in defining the role of the entrepreneur and, along with David Ricardo left an incomplete legacy to economic history . He used the standard terms of the times, that of “projectors and undertakers” to identify entrepreneurial individuals, but did so only in passing Unfortunately the former term was often given to shady dealers and the latter was subsequently, and for no known reason, given over to funeral directors. Smith’s undertaker was a “mere capitalist” and while he was important as a decision maker in regard to the division of labour, he failed to distinguish the role of the capitalist from the entrepreneur, whereby the capitalist in setting up new ventures or managing new practices on large estates, which is speculative, “promises himself extraordinary profits.”