Projector (business)

This use of the term projector emerged during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). In previous decades bureaucratic initiatives to stimulate domestic production were already referred to as projects. When rising prices and unemployment marked the early years of Elizabeth I’s reign, the government sought a remedy in the expansion of domestic manufacturing and thus the role of the projector emerged. The issue of chartered patents for new projects provided monopolies and privileges for potential projectors, who thus played an important role in developing economic activity.^[2]: 50

The re-organisation of the state following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 – particularly in regard to new fiscal arrangements such as the creation of Europe’s first widely circulating credit currency – inaugurated the "Age of Projectors".^[3]: 109 In 1693 Daniel Defoe wrote An Essay Upon Projects in which he declared that he was living in a "Projecting Age".^[4] Many proposals combined the prospect of military conquest with that of commercial expansion.^[5]: 30