The Development of Social Entrepreneurship

In this paper it is explored how social entrepreneurship as defined by modern standards has existed since as long ago as the Middle Ages. A set of qualifications will be presented by which a number of social enterprises will be compared and evaluated. Five historical periods will be discussed and a social enterprise from each of them will be evaluated according to modern standards. This way it can be analyzed how social entrepreneurship has developed in Europe since the Middle Ages. This paper concludes that the existence of social enterprises as defined by modern standards depends heavily on the social and economic structure of Europe at the time.