... that, combining peculium with free administration, secured limited liability for owners and turned the slaves to whom a business was entrusted into a kind of director. This construction enabled masters to become the proprietor of many formally separate enterprises at once, thereby expanding their business...

.... The framework of private enterprise securing limited liability for owner and turning “business slave” into a kind of director is brought to light. Research limitations/implications The results of this research allow historians to retrace the origins of modern private enterprise to classical antiquity, while...