Economic and business history

This paper provides lists of the major companies in Australia at benchmark years through the twentieth century - 1910, 1930,1952, 1964, 1986, 1997. Company name, size by asset data, sectoral location, and place of location are all provided. It was the key source in the following landmark study: G. Fleming, D. Merrett and S.Ville, The Big End of Town. Big Business and Corporate Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia (Cambridge University Press 2004..

L’histoire de la famille Béghin dans le sucre et le papier se déploie de 1868 à 1977 sur trois générations : Ferdinand (1840-1895), deux de ses fils, Joseph (1871-1938) et Henri (1873-1944), enfin, le fils de ce dernier, Ferdinand (1902-1994). Ceux-ci construisent en quelques décennies un groupe de dimension internationale, qui échappe pourtant, durant les années 1970, au contrôle familial. La destinée des Béghin illustre-t-elle un échec du capitalisme familial à la française ? Cet exemple s’avère-t-il au contraire riche d’autres leçons ?

Business History case on M&A`s about the acquisition in 1930s by Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon) and Royal Dutch Shell of 50% stake in Gulf Oil subsidiary in Venezuela, Mene Grande Oil Company, instrumental in Eastern Venezuela`s oil industry development

Durante el siglo XX, en Sinaloa, México, la aparcería ha tenido un lugar secundario en la evolución de la agricultura, pero no por ello deja de tener un papel significativo. La Ley de Tierras Ociosas de 1920 declaraba de utilidad pública el cultivo de las tierras de labor y ponía  a disposición de los presidentes municipales, aquellas superficies que no estuvieran preparadas para su cultivo, facultándolos para darlas en aparcería o en arrendamiento. De la década de 1920 en adelante existe poca información sobre los resultados de esta práctica y a partir de 1950 su número se incrementa significativamente.
Un análisis de estos casos nos demuestra que es mayor el peso de los contratos de  arrendamiento que los de aparcería, tanto por su número como por la superficie de tierra que comprendieron, pero la persistencia de estos últimos y su incremento a través del tiempo nos lleva a estudiarlos y los resultados no concuerdan con aquellas posturas que hablan de la ineficiencia de los aparceros, la falta de incentivos que existían en estos, la baja productividad de sus cultivos y su aversión al riesgo. Por el contrario la evidencia demuestra que eran agricultores nacionales o extranjeros que optaron por estos contratos en regiones donde predominaban las tierras de riego, además preferían sembrar cultivos de alto riesgo y gran productividad, a su vez fueron muy eficientes y con el tiempo muchos de ellos se convirtieron en prósperos empresarios agrícolas.

En este artículo se detallan las principales informaciones sobre las actividades financieras y de
comercio marítimo llevadas a cabo por los mercaderes Ruy Díaz de Segura y Pedro Gutiérrez,
quienes, por lo que atañe al comercio colonial español, realizaron, en particular modo durante la
primera mitad del siglo XVI, importantes negocios entre Sevilla y el Nuevo Mundo.

This article examines the ways that Australia’s largest retail firms
accessed and adapted external knowledge flows, largely from the
USA, to develop discount department store chains from the late-1960s
onwards. In doing so, it extends work on retail internationalisation
by focusing on the importation, rather than the exportation of business
models. The three firms – Coles, Myer, and Woolworths – exhibited
differing degrees of absorptive capacity in identifying and
commercialising knowledge flows. This was reflected in fluctuating
levels of success, the scope of store networks and relative positioning
in the Australian market. Further, the role played by informal
associations between managers in non-competing firms in different
markets during the development of discount department stores in
Australia advances the case for socialising analyses of business
knowledge transfer more broadly.

Recent decades have witnessed increased public concern about vehicle emissions and growing frustration with political inaction and business preferences for the status quo. This article provides historical perspective on such regulatory dynamics by analyzing the Swiss and the Swedish cases of vehicle emission governance in the1970s-1980s. Relying on archival documents detailing the policy process in both countries as well as on international regulatory arenas, the analysis focuses on political solutions for reducing the toxicity of vehicle emissions. It uncovers the influence of national as well as international business groups and the existence of the tension between various national ministries, arising from conflicting environmental and trade-related goals. Is also highlights the importance of different institutional settings in creating the expertise to explain the political outcomes. While the Swiss corporatist system gave a great deal of power to a variety of interest groups at each stage of the political process, the Swedish government invested significant resources in the creation of independent expertise and enjoyed a relative autonomy, despite the importance of the Swedish car industry. The analysis also assesses the importance of the Swiss-Swedish collaboration in overcoming certain obstacles and their contribution to the implementation of stricter regulations in Europe that ultimately occurred at the margins of the European Economic Community.

Este texto descreve como os conflitos ambientais emergentes condicionaram o desempenho ou levaram à busca de soluções técnicas alternativas no caso de grandes minas da Faixa Piritosa Ibérica em Portugal. A informação disponível mostra que, em mercados de concorrência global, o sucesso da empresa britânica em Santo Domingo teve por base a busca activa de novas soluções técnicas para a criação e adaptação de conhecimentos existentes para problemas locais, a fim de maximizar os recursos minerais disponíveis. O desenvolvimento inicial da hidrometalurgia para o tratamento de minérios pobres foi uma solução para resolver problemas de competitividade, desenvolvendo economias de escala. Neste processo, as empresas transferiram os fardos ambientais que recaíam sobre os proprietários e agricultores para os grupos sociais mais frágeis, os pescadores da região. Palavras-chave: Conflitos Ambientais; Indústria Mineira; Hidrometalurgia (Cobre); Portugal, Séculos XIX e XX.

This article describes how emerging environmental conflicts conditioned the business performance and led the organizations to search for alternative technical solutions in the case of large mines of the Iberian Pyrite Belt in Portugal. The information available shows that the success of the British enterprise in Santo Domingos, in the context of global competition, was based on the active search for new technical solutions, by the creation and adaptation of existing knowledge to local problems in order to maximize the mineral resources available. The early development of the hydrometallurgical processes for the treatment of poor ores can be explained as the way these companies tried to solve problems of competitiveness, boosting economies of scale. In the process, they transferred the environmental burdens from landowners and farmers to more fragile social groups, the poor fishermen of the region.

Citação:
Guimarães, Paulo E. (2016) - "Conflitos Ambientais e Progresso Técnico na Indústria Mineira em Portugal (1858-1938)". In «CEM/Cultura, Espaço & Memória». Porto: CITCEM/Edições Afrontamento, nº 7, 2016. Dossier temático «Cruzar fronteiras: ligar as margens da história ambiental/Crossing Borders: connecting edges of environmental history». Dir. Maria Cristina Almeida e Cunha; Editores do dossier temático Inês Amorim, Luís Sousa Silva, Sara Pinto

Fritz L. Redlich (1892–1978), completed his degree in economics in Berlin in 1914 when the historical school still dominated the field in the person of Gustav Schmoller. His PhD research was already dedicated to a business history study: the German tar industry, while his attempt at obtaining a teaching qualification based on a research on the historical and economic significance of advertisement. Redlich himself withdrew his dissertation after the Nazis seized power in 1933 and three years later left Germany for the United States. He taught in several universities and also served in the public administration, all the while writing on the American Steel and banking industries, supported and sponsored by Frank Taussig. A major breakthrough in his career was the call to participate in the work of the Research Center in Entrepreneurial History at Harvard University. There, in continuous confrontation with Schumpeter, Cole and many other researchers in matters of entrepreneurship, Redlich developed an interesting epistemological foundation for the newly-born business history. He distinguished between research on the actor and on the action. Entrepreneurs could be studied as an ideal type, in theory, as a real type, in analytical empirical research, and as simple businessman in case-studies and biographical reconstructions. The action of entrepreneurs could be researched in regard to the goals and meaning of their enterprises, to the economy as a whole and to the community at large. Entrepreneurs could interact with all of the three aforementioned spheres of action, influencing not only the profitability of their ventures but also the development of an economy or the well-being of a community. As such, researching entrepreneurship only from the theoretical point of view would be limitative for Redlich. Business history should also attempt to 'verstehen', becoming part of the social sciences. The paper will analyse the methodological works of Fritz Redlich and his participation to the lively debate on the scientific statute of business history along with A. D. Chandler, but also his researches on aristocratic entrepreneurship, a topic on which he coordinated an international research effort, and his historiographic recounts on the emergence and diffusion of business history in Germany and in the United States.

Business history can be a valuable, even critical element in teaching international management – not only at elite institutions and at postgraduate level, but at universities of applied sciences and in undergraduate education, too. It is specifically relevant for programs with a focus on Europe. Students should be given a chance to discover common and connected pasts of European enterprise. The article offers a rationale for curriculum integration and discusses case selections and teaching methods for non-historians. Five exemplary themes are presented: East India companies, financial market bubbles, telegraphy, the Suez Canal, and the emergence of airlines.
Zusammenfassung
Unternehmensgeschichte kann ein wertvoller, sogar kritischer Beitrag in der Vermittlung des internationalen Managements sein – nicht nur an elitären Einrichtungen und im Master, sondern auch an Fachhochschulen und in Bachelor-Studiengängen. Besonders relevant ist sie für Studiengänge mit Fokus Europa. Studenten sollten eine Chance erhalten, die gemeinsame und zusammenhängende Vergangenheit europäischer Unternehmenstätigkeit zu entdecken. Der Artikel begründet die Integration ins Curriculum und diskutiert Fallauswahl und Lehrmethodik für Nichthistoriker. Eine exemplarische Auswahl von fünf Themen wird gezeigt: Ostindienkompanien, Finanzmarkt-Blasen, Telegrafie, der Suezkanal und die Entstehung von Fluggesellschaften.

This thesis is a detailed historical study that examines the nature and extent of foreign capital investment in Southern Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) between 1939 and 1956, with particular focus on the development of secondary industry. A number of scholars have commented that, with the exception of South Africa, no country was as dominated by foreign capital as Southern Rhodesia. However, this claim has not been investigated empirically in great depth. The study therefore offers an account of the development of secondary industry and also demonstrates the penetration of foreign capital into this sector. This thesis argues that, while the development of secondary industries had gathered momentum during the war years, the inflow of foreign capital into secondary industries really increased during the post-war period. The trend in foreign capital inflows and the expansion of industries was consolidated by the establishment of the Central African Federation in 1953. The increase in m...

This paper discusses large-scale but gradual changes in the subject of holography that have only recently become readily observable. Presenting an analysis of publications in holography over the past half century, the paper illustrates and discusses the evolving shape of the subject. Over 40,000 international information sources have been recorded, including some 20,000 papers, 10,000 conference presentations, 7,000 patents, 1,000 books, nearly as many theses and at least 500 exhibitions. This statistical and sociological approach is combined with the identification of specific factors – notably the role of individuals, conferences, proof-of-concept demonstrations and exhibitions – to suggest that the development of holography has been unusually contingent on a variety of intellectual and social influences. The paper situates these observations about holography and holographers in the context of a wider discussion about the styles, purposes and difficulties of historical writing on technological subjects. It further suggests that this ongoing process of both recording and reconstructing technological history can be aided by identification of sources sometimes overlooked or undervalued by practitioners: unpublished archival materials such as private file collections; business records; accounts of unsuccessful activities; and, by no means least, anecdotal accounts inter-linked between participants.

Maare Paloheimo & Merja Uotila

JOHDANTO Suomalaisen elinkeinotoiminnan monipuolistumisen ja modernisoitumisen aikana on yleensä pidetty 1800-luvun loppupuolta, mutta toisinaan kehityksen on katsottu alkaneen vasta 1900-luvulla. Esimerkiksi teollisen tuotannon kasvu, kaupallisen toiminnan monipuolistuminen ja volyymin kasvu sekä uusien työpaikkojen synnyttämä muuttoliike maaseutualueilta kaupunkeihin ajoittuvat vuoden 1850 jälkeiselle ajalle. Myös monet suuret yhteiskunnalliset muutokset, kuten valtiopäivien säännölliset kokoontumiset vuodesta 1863 alkaen ja elinkeinovapaus (1879), ovat vahvistaneet käsitystä ajanjakson merkittävyydestä. Vastaavasti vuosisadan alkupuolta on usein pidetty virkavaltaisuuden ja pysähtyneisyyden aikana. Taloudellisiin kysymyksiin liittyvien anomus- ja valituskirjelmien systemaattinen tutkimus kuitenkin osoittaa, että tilanne ei ollut näin yksiselitteinen, vaan elinkeinotoiminta alkoi monipuolistua ja jopa modernisoitua aikaisemmin. Voidaankin perustellusti sanoa, että 1800-luvun jälkipuoliskolla tapahtuneiden muutosten perusta luotiin aikaisemmilla vuosikymmenillä. Tämä näkyy esimerkiksi uusien toimialojen edustajien elinkeinolupahakemusten lisääntymisenä, kaupan alan toimijoiden ja perinteisten käsityöammattien harjoittajien lukumäärän kasvuna sekä osin myös elinkeinonharjoittajien sosiaalisen taustan monipuolistumisena. Arkipäiväisten kulutushyödykkeiden kasvava kysyntä ja yleisen vaatimustason nousu niin maaseudulla kuin kaupungissa kertovat omalta osaltaan kulutuskulttuurin voimistumisesta. Kulutustavaratuotantoon liittyvien innovaatioiden leviäminen oli osa tätä kehitystä. Tämänkaltaisella kehityksellä on yhtymäkohtia Jan de Vriesin luomaan uutteruuden vallankumous (industrious revolution) -teoriaan. Siinä de Vries analysoi kotitalouksien kulutuskulttuurissa tapahtuneita muutoksia, joissa siirryttiin lähemmäs markkinapohjaista tuotantoa. Samanaikaisesti kotitalouksissa ryhdyttiin käyttämään enemmän ja laaja-alaisemmin markkinoiden tuottamia kulutushyödykkeitä. Teoriaa on pidetty yhtenä viime vuosikymmenien stimuloivimmista varhaismodernin ajan taloudellisesta kehitystä kuvaavista teorioista, vaikka sitä on kritisoitu muun muassa keskittymisestä vain nopeasti teollistuneisiin maihin.

Colonial rule was not a benevolent political system. A look at the balance sheet of colonial rule in British Southern Cameroon shows that it left more negative heritages than any positive outcome. It left behind a functional bureaucracy, a rudimentary educational system, albeit externally oriented. The British colonial agricultural and industrial policies in British Southern Cameroons have implications for the region's economic advancement. The colonial economic policies in British Southern Cameroons, for instance, discouraged indigenous industrialization, but promoted export crop cultivation to feed the British factories. The colonial space of British Southern Cameroons served, not only as ready source of cheap cash crops to feed the growing industries in Britain and other European states, but also as trading post for the British and European traders and merchants, and at the same time supported the importation of end-products given that the British wanted an outlet for her own manufactured products in order to stave off declining domestic consumption, and falling rate of profit at home. This paper argues that the state of development crisis in the Kumba Division can be traced to the antecedents of pre-independence economic policy as the root of the region's current economic stagnation. The paper examines the role of expatriate trading firms in the cash crop sector that was the bases of any economic activity in the area.

The article analyses the expenditures and living standard of a nineteenth-century Habsburg family, the Bossi Fedrigotti. drawing upon the household budgets and the documents of their private archives, this study investigates the type, composition, and variation in expenditures during two benchmark decades, 1835-1844 and 1855-1864. the relatively small share of expenses for food as compared to leisure, cultural activities, charity and conspicuous consumption reflects the household’s quest for social status and reputation befitting the noble title obtained in the previous century. the Fedrigotti also represented a pillar in the economic system of Rovereto where they lived, which they actively supported through a variety of economic and non-economic actions, helping the city to prosper and advance.

We invite fellow scholars to discuss corporate behavior during past wars and humanitarian crises to contribute to our understanding of the Russia-Ukraine war and its possible consequences for business in Central and Eastern Europe from a historical perspective. The workshop is aimed to engage in a debate about the behavior of business actors and to understand whether and how firms' behavior during and after wars has changed over time and across regions. The call is open to all topics that fit the general scope of the workshop. Although our focus is Central Eastern Europe, we welcome studies concerning other regions if they contribute to deepening our understanding of the topic.

History can represent an effective marketing resource because it can establish an emotional relationship with consumers. This article examines trademark applications in order to show how Spanish companies used the past in their branding strategy during the twentieth century. The article analyses which historical themes were used the most, over which periods, for what types of products and services and according to which Spanish regions. The study indicates that this commercial use of the past was closely linked to the spread of Spanish nationalism. Brands try to connect emotionally with consumers by evoking historical national myths and, therefore, their use increased during the periods of intensive nationalist expression.

Free access to the article: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZX8RHCVMDXTMM2S4XUKD/full?target=10.1080/00076791.2020.1717473

This article analyzes the key resilience factors of the Italian firearms district after World War II structured around four main questions: resilience of what, to what, by what means, and with what outcome. This study aims to improve and expand knowledge about the capacity and difficulties of industrial districts to adapt to market changes and maintain their competitiveness. Our findings highlight that the successful recovery was based on the conquest of a new market segment and a novel decentralised and flexible-although hierarchical-production structure achieved through the reorganisation of know-how and resources accumulated in the district. The advantages of local clustering and elevated levels of specialisation provided the district with an effective short-term adaptation to the postwar crisis and a stable long-term growth path.

Hudson was not a civil rights activist, yet he knew he was helping to break down racial barriers that had long confined African Americans to lower-skilled, nonsupervisory jobs. His previously unpublished memoir is an inside account of both the racial integration of corporate America and the struggles common to anyone climbing the postwar corporate ladder. At Lockheed-Georgia, Hudson went on to become the first black supervisor to manage an integrated crew and then the first black purchasing agent. There were other “firsts” along the path to these achievements, and Working for Equality is rich in details of Hudson’s work on the assembly line and in the back office. In both circumstances, he contended with being not only a black man but a light-skinned black man as he dealt with production goals, personnel disputes, and other workday challenges. Randall Patton’s introduction places Hudson’s story within the broader struggle of workplace desegregation in America. Although Hudson is fra...

The implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by companies that have a bad reputation, especially those involved in tobacco production has attracted criticisms from various quarters. Since the mid-1980s, tobacco companies have intensified market expansion strategies in several African countries. They have used music to target youths and children, organised fashion shows to entice women into smoking, offered kids free cigarettes on the streets and for a very long time undermined efforts by governments to put in place effective tobacco legislation and actively participated in the smuggling of tobacco products into the continent. Worse still, tobacco companies persuaded some African governments to promote tobacco cultivation as a major source of foreign earnings, and in recent years, the tobacco industry has resorted to using Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to massage its image and cover its tracks. British American Tobacco (BAT), which is the focus of this paper, had a virtual monopoly in parts of Africa, both in terms of tobacco manufacturing and sales of cigarettes. In eleven African countries BAT had more than a 90% share of the cigarette market. This paper examines some of the health, social and economic impacts of BAT’s activities in Africa from 1985 to 2010 using Cameroon as a case study. The purpose of this paper is to examine the process is to demonstrate how British American Tobacco has used its corporate social responsibility strategy to cloud the controversy surrounding its activities in Cameroon.
The paper therefore concludes that BAT’s heavy footprint on the African continent has wreaked havoc on the economy, health and welfare of the people, thus partially contributing to an increase in social spending by the government of Cameroon.

For a century, Citizens & Southern Bank was a fixture in Georgia. In 1991, the C&S brand name disappeared in a merger with North Carolina National Bank. This was one ofthe bittersweet consequences ofthe slow, confusing swirl
of bank deregulation after 1970, when institutions such as C&S simply disappeared, swallowed by the “winners” in the new competitive environment of interstate banking in the 1980s and 1990s. Even earlier, however, the Lane family had ceased to control the bank started by Mills Lane, Sr. in 1891. Mills
B. Lane, Jr. was the last member of the Lane family to run C&S. After his retirement in 1973, Mills handpicked his successor and tried to retain some influence, but the bank began slipping away from the Lanes. By the early 80s, a decade before Hugh McColl’s NCNB acquired C&S, Mills Lane, Jr. was
deeply alienated from the institution that had been, according to many, “Georgia’s cornerstone bank."

Recent research on Qingdao history has recognised that the German colonial project in China did not destroy the domestic economic system.  Instead, it favoured agricultural developments in the rural inland and promoted balanced growth in all sectors of the economy. This book looks at the process through which the Shandong province developed a new form of governance that guided its integration with both the world economy and that of China, as a response to the global contestation between free trade and agricultural protectionism. Whilst drawing from previous studies on colonial Qingdao that chiefly emphasized the aspect of German “model colony” in China, it uses newly-opened company files from the Jebsen & Jessen Historical Archives in Denmark and other German archives to understand how the effect of economic integration, as revealed by different operations of market segments of German traders in China, transformed the Chinese model of resource distribution, economic development and government-business relations.

Taking colonial policy towards West Africa as a case study, Butler shows that, during the 1940s, the Colonial Office evolved a policy of encouraging colonial industry as part of a broad programme of development intended to prepare colonies for independence.

"Το λεύκωμα "Κωπαΐς: Φωτογραφικό οδοιπορικό" εκδόθηκε με αφορμή την απόδοση στην ιστορική έρευνα του πλούσιου αρχειακού, φωτογραφικού και μουσειακού υλικού του Ιστορικού Αρχείου του Οργανισμού Κωπαΐδος. Η παρούσα έκδοση εντάσσεται στο πλαίσιο εργασιών της επιστημονικής συνάντησης με θέμα "Κωπαΐδα: Προβληματισμοί και προοπτικές ανάδειξης των μνημείων της", που οργανώνουν το Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού (Θ΄Ε.Π.Κ.Α. - 1η Εφορεία Νεωτέρων Μνημείων), το Ι.Μ.Τ.Ι.Ι.Ε. και ο Οργανισμός Κωπαΐδος και πρόκειται να διεξαχθεί στον Αλίαρτο και τον Ορχομενό Βοιωτίας μεταξύ 11 & 13 Σεπτεμβρίου 1998. [...]

Ινστιτούτο Μελέτης της Τοπικής Ιστορίας & της Ιστορίας των Επιχειρήσεων"

Argentina dominó el mercado mundial de carnes desde inicios del siglo XX, y los frigoríficos representaron una de las principales industrias radicadas en Argentina. Este artículo se propone revisitar un tema clásico dentro de la historiografía económica argentina desde una nueva perspectiva, al enfocarse en los actores empresariales e insertar este análisis en un proceso de cambio de la industria de la carne a escala global. La investigación propone una periodización distinta e ilustra las importantes transformaciones (en términos de actores, estrategias y perfiles productivos) que vivió la industria de la carne desde fines del siglo XIX hasta finales de los años veinte. Se analiza también cómo el sector se destacó por una temprana y fuerte concentración y por la competencia oligopólica entre las principales empresas, caracterizada por largos periodos de cooperación y breves enfrentamientos por las cuotas de exportación.

The Square Mile was a century one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in the British Empire, home to leading industrialists, financiers and railway tycoons. This paper contextualizes these prominent men, by domesticating them. It establishes the importance of property ownership by women the community.