The Backbone Nation

America was founded by small business owners. The signers of the Declaration included merchants, printers, farmers, and lawyers in private practice; the Boston Tea Party was, among other things, a protest by colonial traders against a government-backed monopoly. The archetype of the American entrepreneur was set before the Revolution by Benjamin Franklin—a runaway apprentice who opened his own Philadelphia print shop at twenty-two, built it into a franchise network across the colonies, and retired rich enough at forty-two to devote himself to science and statecraft. Paul Revere ran a silversmith shop before his midnight ride and a copper-rolling mill after it. From the beginning, the American promise was not employment but proprietorship: the chance to own your work.