This authoritative volume focuses on the rise of modern firms, from their early history to the present day. It considers the role of laws and contracts in shaping the growth and influence of business enterprises. It presents entrepreneurs, executives and the firms they controlled as driving actors in national economies and international growth.

Contents: Acknowledgements Introduction Geoffrey Jones and Walter A. Friedman PART I WHAT IS A FIRM? 1. Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. (1992), ‘What is a Firm? A Historical Perspective’ 2. Mira Wilkins (1986), ‘Defining a Firm: History and Theory’ 3. S.R.H. Jones (1997), ‘Transaction Costs and the Theory of the Firm: The Scope and Limitations of the New Institutional Approach’ PART II EARLY FIRMS 4. Karl James Moore and David Charles Lewis (2000), ‘Multinational Enterprise in Ancient Phoenicia’ 5. Constance Jones Mathers (1988), ‘Family Partnerships and International Trade in Early Modern Europe: Merchants from Burgos in England and France, 1470–1570’ 6. Ann M. Carlos and Stephen Nicholas (1988), ‘“Giants of an Earlier Capitalism”: The Chartered Trading Companies as Modern Multinationals’ PART III MODERN FIRMS 7. N. McKendrick (1960), ‘Josiah Wedgewood: An Eighteenth-Century Entrepreneur in Salesmanship and Marketing Techniques’ 8. Pat Hudson (1994), ‘Financing Firms, 1700–1850’ 9. Eric Hilt (2008), ‘When Did Ownership Separate from Control? Corporate Governance in the Early Nineteenth Century’ 10. Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. (1965), ‘The Railroads: Pioneers in Modern Corporate Management’ 11. Walter A. Friedman (1998), ‘John H. Patterson and the Sales Strategy of the National Cash Register Company, 1884 to 1922’ PART IV MATURE FIRMS 12. Edith T. Penrose (1960), ‘The Growth of the Firm – A Case Study: The Hercules Powder Company’ 13. Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. (1976), ‘The Development of Modern Management Structure in the US and UK’ 14. Richard Whittington, Michael Mayer and Francesco Curto (1999), ‘Chandlerism in Post-War Europe: Strategic and Structural Change in France, Germany, and the UK, 1950–1993’ 15. Robert F. Freeland (1996), ‘The Myth of the M-Form? Governance, Consent, and Organizational Change’ 16. Geoffrey Jones and Peter Miskell (2007), ‘Acquisitions and Firm Growth: Creating Unilever’s Ice Cream and Tea Business’ PART V VARIETIES OF FIRM 17. Madeleine Zelin (2009), ‘The Firm in Early Modern China’ 18. W. Mark Fruin (1980), ‘The Family as a Firm and the Firm as a Family in Japan: The Case of Kikkoman Shõyu Company Limited’ 19. Albert Carreras and Xavier Tafunell (1997), ‘Spain: Big Manufacturing Firms between State and Market, 1917–1990’ 20. Hartmut Berghoff (2006), ‘The End of Family Business? The Mittelstand and German Capitalism in Transition, 1949–2000’ PART VI LAW AND REGULATION 21. Peter L. Payne (1980), ‘Fields of Enterprise’ 22. Naomi R. Lamoreaux (1998), ‘Partnerships, Corporations, and the Theory of the Firm’ 23. William C. Kirby (1995), ‘China, Unincorporated: Company Law and Business Enterprise in Twentieth Century China’ 24. Aldo Musacchio (2008), ‘Can Civil Law Countries Get Good Institutions? Lessons from the History of Creditor Rights and Bond Markets in Brazil’ PART VII GLOBAL FIRMS 25. Mira Wilkins (1975), ‘Epilogue’ 26. Geoffrey Jones and Judith Wale (1998), ‘Merchants as Business Groups: British Trading Companies in Asia before 1945’ 27. Chiara Betta (2005), ‘The Trade Diaspora of Baghdadi Jews: From India to China’s Treaty Ports, 1842–1937’