Currently, the interest of scientists in studying the history of entrepreneurship is due to its scientific relevance and the need for social practice. At certain stages of the development of society and science, the history of entrepreneurship as an integral part of the world was studied quite actively, but at other stages this topic went beyond the scope of the study. This is due to the development of the historical situation, the emergence of new principles of knowledge of society, a change in conceptual approaches to the study of entrepreneurship. Currently, as one of the central themes of social thought, priority is given to research aimed at finding a rational model for the existence of each of the components of the social structure of society as a single contradictory system. There are discussions around it in various sciences, such as political science, philosophy, sociology, economics, cultural studies. Later, historians joined their discussion. The reason for this is the need to resolve the methodological contradiction between the accumulated historical empirical material on entrepreneurship and the lack of a comprehensive theoretical generalization of this material and a methodology for understanding this phenomenon. The importance of studying the history of the formation of small and medium-sized businesses in Kazakhstan is associated not only with the need to form an optimized approach to determining the place and role of entrepreneurship in society, but also with the formulation of new, not previously discussed issues.