At Law & Liberty, John Berlau (Competitive Enterprise Institute): George Washington as Entrepreneur. From the introduction:
My journey into a greater understanding of George Washington and his business enterprises came shortly after Mount Vernon rebuilt some of those enterprises such as the whiskey distillery and the gristmill. As I studied and wrote about the intersection of public policy and the culture of entrepreneurship, I thought George Washington was certainly one of the best examples of how our nation was rooted in entrepreneurship. I also believed that George Washington’s examples of resilience in the face of economic setbacks—starting out as a freelance surveyor in his teens after his family became bereft of funds for his education upon his father’s death; and later as a successful farmer, taking it upon himself to quit growing tobacco and diversify his crops when he saw that the tobacco market was cratering—could be inspiring to today’s entrepreneurs and make him relatable to ordinary Americans. Washington’s examples of triumphing from unfortunate circumstances have become especially compelling in the past year when so many Americans have seen reversals of fortune and have had to begin anew during this horrific pandemic.
In short, when I started writing my book, George Washington, Entrepreneur: How Our Founding Father’s Private Business Pursuits Changed America and the World—and after I had already written some articles on George Washington’s entrepreneurship for publications such as Forbes and RealClearMarkets—I thought George Washington’s innovations in business were a way for the American public to see him beyond his face on the dollar. His start as a freelance surveyor in the gig economy of his day and using both his knowledge and his wages to acquire and build real estate holdings offers a practical example for today’s entrepreneurs. His escape from the captive market of colonial export tobacco to focus on domestic crops like wheat, and then taking the extraordinary steps of coordinating his wheat crop with the grist mill to make flour, essentially trademarking the flour with the “G. Washington” imprint on the bags to differentiate it when it was shipped to England and throughout the colonies, demonstrates Washington’s understanding of economic concepts like branding and vertical integration before they were formally developed in textbooks.
But through my research, I’ve also found that George Washington’s entrepreneurial experiences help explain more than his relatability to today’s Americans. I am now convinced that had Washington not pursued these ventures successfully, he may not have had the motivation to lead the fight for independence. He may not have been chosen by fellow colonists to command the Continental Army against the British, and he may not have become the champion of religious freedom and gradual opponent of slavery who ended up freeing all his enslaved workers in his will.
Posted at 6:25 AM