The re-edition of a 15th Century book provides a topical guide for the creation of a well-rounded business

 

A keen yet well-rounded entrepreneur, careful about his accounts and his human resources. In short, a humanist entrepreneur. It is possible to sum up under various forms the ideal entrepreneurial figure. It can be tracked along a path that many people – in spite of appearances -, dare to undertake albeit with alternating results. To guide you, you should read “Arricchirsi con onore. Elogio del buon imprenditore” (Getting rich honourably. Eulogy of the good entrepreneur) by Benedetto Cotrugli merchant, entrepreneur, philosopher and humanist, who was born in Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and put down on paper his ideas about entrepreneurship and more generally about doing business in 1458.

This is a trade manual – one of the first – but also a business manual, one that is still topical today, after five centuries of neglect. Rewritten in today’s modern Italian, the book can almost be ready in one go, and it is packed with suggestions but also proposals that are absolutely applicable to all “modern” businesses.

The “Libro de l’arte de la mercatura” (Book of the art of merchantry) – this was the original title of the book -, has value because while the financialisation of the economy and subsequent crises seem to have undermined the basic rules of business, it reminds us that there may also be a “healthy and profitable” way to get rich and to enrich society at the same time. The entrepreneur as a social subject first and foremost, and then ans the organiser of production, after. At the heart of everything is Cotrugli’s idea that sees the merchant-entrepreneur as a “universal man” starting from an assumption: the accounts have to be in order but this order is not enough, intellectual, professional and human characteristics are also necessary, if not indispensable.

To explain his idea, Cotrugli then enumerates the 15 rules “to get rich honourably”, ranging from trusting your own strengths, to the ability to withstand hardships and anxieties, the pursuit of quality and precision, the knowledge of finance and respect for partners and commitments, from culture to the ability to be in the public eye and then again the awareness of the importance of children and family and of soil as the best investment. The work ends with an epilogue (where, among other things, he strikes a blow for young people) and twenty aphorisms that sum up together the type of ideal entrepreneur and the path to get there.

But beyond the rules dictated, reading Cotrugli’s work is good for the awareness of the importance of the mission of the entrepreneur who manages to communicate.  An awareness that comes from afar but that is all absolutely topical.

The book is supplemented by a note by Riccardo Wagner and an introduction by Bunello Cucinelli who recalls the idea of “humanistic capitalism” and the value of entrepreneurship that has morals, awareness of the gift, “affection for one another”, social sentiment and spirit of sacrifice.

Arricchirsi con onore. Elogio del buon imprenditore (Getting rich honourably. Eulogy of the good entrepreneur)