The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: Entrepreneurship of the Norwegian Puritan Leader Hans Nielsen Hauge

Abstract

The present paper deals with Max Webers hypothesis on the linkage between protestant ethics and the development of capitalism and entreprenaurship. It does so by study industrial entrepreneurship the great Norwegian puritan pioneer and leader Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771-1824) was engaged in. Specificially, the paper seeks to map his involvement in starting or restarting businesses and to quantify the volumes of financial activities he was engaged in. The paper concludes that the industrial activities initiated by Hauge was of a substantial size to the Norwegian economy in the 19th century.