This book, the product of a unique international scholarly collaboration sponsored jointly by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Soviet Academy of Sciences, provides a comprehensive survey on international banking from 1870 to 1914. In that period international investment reached dimensions previously unknown, and the banking systems of the world achieved a degree of internationalization without precedent. The book's authors, twenty-five scholars from fifteen countries, are the acknowledged experts in their fields. They detail the origin and development of internationally oriented banks in each major country, and explain their role in foreign investment and industrial finance. They look at all areas of the world that were involved in international investment, either as investors, recipients of investment, or both. The definitive work on international banking from 1870 to 1914, this book will interest scholars and students in financial and banking history, bankers and economists in the finanical industry, and general historians.

Leading economists and economic historians offer case studies and theoretical perspectives that fill a longstanding gap in the existing literature on technology-driven industrial development, discussing the interaction of finance and technological innovation in the American economy since the Second Industrial Revolution. Although technological change is vital for economic growth, the interaction of finance and technological innovation is rarely studied. This pioneering volume examines the ways in which innovation is funded in the United States. In case studies and theoretical discussions, leading economists and economic historians analyze how inventors and technologically creative entrepreneurs have raised funds for their projects at different stages of U.S. economic development, beginning with the post-Civil War period of the Second Industrial Revolution. Their discussions point to intriguing insights about how the nature of the technology may influence its financing and, conversely, how the availability of funds influences technological advances.These studies show that over the long history of American technological advancement, inventors and innovators have shown considerable flexibility in finding ways to finance their work. They have moved to cities to find groups of local investors; they have worked for large firms that could tap the securities market for funds; they have looked to the federal government for research and development funding; and they have been financed by the venture capital industry. The studies make it clear that methods of funding innovation--whether it is in the auto industry or information technology--have important implications for both the direction of technological change and the competitive dynamism of the economy.

The years between 1750 and 1914 saw the industrial transformation of European and a fundamental reorientation of its economy. This textbook is among the first to eschew country-by-country analysis of Europe's economic development; instead it offers a continent-wide, thematic analysis of the sectors involved.

"The history of a bank is more than a chronicle of money-making; it should be both a personal history of shareholders, manager and employees, and at a macroeconomic level, a history of the organizations at the centre of national and international growth and recession. This volume comprehensively demonstrates the significance of banking history and its relations with social, political and economic history." "A wide range of leading European banking historians provide comments and practical advice on technical problems of research and writing, and discuss critically a variety of approaches they and their peers have used in their work. They bring years of experience and unrivalled expertise to bear on the complete spectrum of banking organizations, from individual institutions to central banks, and the relations between banking systems across international boundaries." "At a time when monetary union is a major issue on economic and political agendas all over Europe this book provides a much needed supra-national perspective on the reasons for, and the best practice in, the writing of banking history."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Transnational Companies (19th-20th centuries) gathers tests which were presented during the fourth convention of the European Business History Association in Bordeaux in September 2000. Most of them come from matured and well-known business historians or business schools specialists, but a bunch of texts were provided too by junior researchers, who found thus a way to promote their brand new inquiries ! Most branches are studied here, either heavy industries or agrobusiness and textile ; but specific areas are well approached : luxury firms, wine and beverages companies, for instance. The focus of Transnational Companies is to scrutinize the emergence of international policies among enterprises, whether through exports strategies or through direct investments in foreign countries, along branches, ways of development, entrepreneurial undertakings or competition's incentives. The book assesses too the move from internationalisation to transnationalisation in the interwar and mostly since the 1960s : owing to several case studies here presented, business schools and economic historians will be able to foster tuitions and seminars with fresh material. Lest several papers are earmarked to the argument about globalisation, that is the restructuring of firms'organisation towards internationalised internal divisions since the 1970s-1980s, as the book does cover the very last years of the 20th century.