This is the first textbook that comprehensively covers the three centuries of British business history from 1720 to the present day. Wilson argues that company culture has been the most important component in the evolution of business organisations and management practices. The influence of business culture on firms' structure, sources of finance, and the background and training of senior managers is investigated to show its pivotal importance in determining business performance.

'A general introductory text on British business history', declared ProfessorDonald Coleman in an important public lecture published in 1987, 'has yet to bewritten'.1 This lacunae is extraordinary, given Britain's role as the birthplace ofthe Industrial Revolution and its possession, even in the late 1980s, of theworld's sixth largest Gross Domestic Product.2 It is even more odd given thatbusiness history in Britain is almost a 'sunrise' industry: every year severalscholarly company histories are published, although these volumes remainlargely unread by business people, business scholars and e.

This book explores the limits of the idea of 'neo-colonialism' - the idea that in the period immediately after independence Malaya/Malaysia enjoyed only a 'pseudo-independence', largely because of the entrenched and dominant position of British business interests allied to indigenous elites. The author argues that, although British business did indeed have a strong position in Malaysia in this period, Malaysian politicians and administrators were able to utilise British business, which was relatively weak vis-a-vis the Malaysian state, for their own ends, at the same time as indigenous businesses and foreign, non-British competitors were gathering strength. In addition, despite the commitment of both Conservative and Labour governments in the UK to preserving British influence worldwide through the Commonwealth relationship, British firms in Malaysia received only limited support from the British post-imperial state.

This is a study about the collapse of Chinese traditional commercial order in the late Qing period. It regards the process as an influence from the prevalence of pro-British Chinese commercial networks in the 1880s. Through the analysis of various Sino-British commercial conflicts after the Arrow war, this book reveals when and where such a commercial network was born and what impact it brought about on the Chinese society.

This 1989 book examines the experience of British business in Asia since 1860, with primary focus on the impact of British commerce in the region. Following an introduction by the editors, there are essays by leading specialist historians on British businesses in Iran, India, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Russian Asia and Japan.

First published in 1981, The British Business Elite is a study of the attitudes to class, status and power of top businessmen in Great Britain, based upon first-hand interviews with chairmen, chief executives and other directors of Britain’s largest industrial, banking and insurance companies: men of genuine wealth and power. Dr Fidler produces important empirical data in a field of study which has been plagued with problems of access; a field in which much of the theory has been based on assumptions. The book includes a careful examination of the background and career of those interviewed; a discussion of the way in which businessmen see the objectives of their companies, particularly relevant to the long-standing debate over the ownership and control of corporations; their views of class and status and of the power of businessmen in Britain. Finally, Dr Fidler considers the implications of the research for future theory and investigation.

In this volume, first published in 1974, the author provides an introduction to the historical development of management in business. Success and failure in a commercial world can be explained partly in terms of economic forces, but much also depends on the people, on the management of the firms – on the bosses. The author approaches this topic by examining some of the major companies and individuals over the past two hundred years, and examines how apparently secure and profitable companies at times run into great difficulties and shows that, by examining the reasons for success and failure, pitfalls may be avoided and efficiency improved. This book will be of special value to business and commercial students, as well as to the general reader who is interested in the problems of modern industry.

In this erudite and comprehensive study, Adrian Pearce offers a detailed survey of British trade with Spanish America in the latter half of the eighteenth century, drawing together a variety of sources and looking at all aspects of commercial activity.