Start of economy drive with millions invested in online trade (1-8)
I believe the answer is:
e-commerce
'start of economy' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'drive with millions invested in online trade' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'millions' could be 'mm' (m is an abbreviation for million) and 'mm' is located in the answer.
'drive' could be 'coerce' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'coerce' is found within the remaining letters.
'online' could be 'e' (abbreviation for electronic, e.g. in ecommerce) and 'e' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for e-commerce that I've seen before include "Online trading" , "Transactions conducted on the internet" , "Business conducted via the internet" , "Internet trade" .)