Editorial
Editors' Note Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 645 – 645 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000713 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Research Articles
A Fine Failure: Relationship Lending, Moses Taylor, and the Joliet Iron & Steel Company, 1869–1888 Mary O'Sullivan Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 647 – 679 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000701 Published Online on 08th December 2014
In this study of lending in the emergence of a modern steel industry in the United States, I analyze the evolving interaction between borrowers and lenders in historical context. I show how “relationship lending” (that is, credit allocation in which personal contacts play a major role) can go wrong, despite good intentions at the outset, and that institutional conditions exert an important influence on how lenders and borrowers negotiate conflicts. Particularly important in the case of Moses Taylor and Joliet Iron Steel Company were the uncertain jurisdictions and political maneuvering that stemmed from structural peculiarities of the U.S. legal system, peculiarities that belie claims of its efficacy for protecting creditor interests. Although this failure of relationship lending might seem to imply negative consequences for economic development, I show that, at least in this case, the opposite interpretation is more compelling.
The Globalization of Knowledge-Based Services: Engineering Consulting in Spain, 1953–1975 Adoración Álvaro-Moya Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 681 – 707 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000725 Published Online on 08th January 2015
This article explores the globalization of knowledge-based services and their impact on host-country firms’ organizational capabilities. Two drivers of such globalization—foreign aid and foreign direct investment coming from the United States—contributed to the development of engineering consulting in Spain in the beginning of the new global economy. The largest Spanish engineering firms have been able to integrate imported knowledge into their own organizational capabilities, enabling them to compete successfully in international markets. This imported knowledge was disseminated in two ways: through private companies, via affiliates and strategic alliances between locals and foreigners; and through the technical and military aid the U.S. government provided during the Cold War.
Organizational Innovation in Nineteenth-Century Railway Investment: Peripheral Countries in a Global Economy Álvaro Silva Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 709 – 736 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000737 Published Online on 08th January 2015
The relationship between ownership and control of distant ventures has been a major topic in business history. This relationship prompted the creation of a specific organizational form, the freestanding company, particularly active in international business before World War I. The freestanding form and railway companies such as Companhia Real share the common characteristic of being stand-alone firms based on foreign direct investment (FDI), but their legal ownership and management strategy were different. The freestanding companies offshored legal ownership; Companhia Real offshored top management since it was incorporated in the country hosting FDI. This business configuration was usual in French investments across European peripheral countries. This article introduces a new concept into the current international business literature, emphasizing the polymorphous character of foreign investment before World War I.
Britain and the Breakdown of the Colonial Environment: The Struggle over the Tanzam Oil Pipeline in Zambia Andrew Cohen Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 737 – 759 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000749 Published Online on 08th January 2015
This article explores the tendering process for the construction of the Tanzam oil pipeline during the mid-1960s. In addressing aspects of the political response to British investment overseas and the history of the British company Lonrho, it argues that the British government's determination to concentrate financial investments at home affected its ability to project its presence through supporting business overseas. In addition, the article suggests that the Zambian government demonstrated autonomy in awarding the tender.
The Political Economy of Commercial Associations: Building the National Board of Trade, 1840–1868 Cory Davis Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 761 – 783 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000750 Published Online on 08th January 2015
This article argues that, in the mid-nineteenth century, the American merchant community created local commercial organizations to propagate a vision of economic development based on republican ideals. As part of a “business revolution,” these organizations attempted to balance competition and cooperation in order to promote and direct the expansion of national markets and commercial activity throughout the country. Faced with the crisis of divergent sectional political economies and committed to the belief that businessmen needed a stronger political voice, merchant groups banded together to form the National Board of Trade, an association devoted to creating a unified commercial interest and shaping national economic policies.
Announcement
Announcements Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 785 – 790 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000762 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Review Essay
Mira Wilkins and Frank Ernest Hill, American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents. Patrick Fridenson Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 791 – 797 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000774 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Arthur L. Honiker, from “Brooklyn, New York,” reviewed American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents, first published in 1964, in the Autumn 1966 issue of the Business History Review. His review was sober, yet quite positive: “This is a thoroughly researched, straightforward account of the overseas expansion of the Ford Motor Company during the sixty years from its founding in 1903.” He praised the book's contextualization of “the vast economic and political changes in the world during that period” and “its objective evaluation of the consequences to the corporation, to the United States, and to the host nations from Ford's activities abroad” (Business History Review 40, no. 3 [1966]: 395).
Book Reviews
GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History. By Diane Coyle. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. 159 pp. Figures, tables, notes, index. Cloth, $19.95. ISBN: 978-0-691-15679-8. Marcel Boumans Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 799 – 801 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000816 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South. By Gavin Wright. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2013. xii + 353 pp. Tables, figures, maps, illustrations, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $35.00. ISBN: 978-0-674-04933-8. Jennifer Delton Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 801 – 803 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000981 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Fragile by Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit. By Charles W. Calomiris and Stephen H. Haber. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. xi + 570 pp. Figures, references, index. Cloth, $35.00. ISBN: 978-0-691-15524-1. Robert E. Wright Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 804 – 806 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000798 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Remembering Inflation. By Brigitte Granville. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013. xvi + 272 pp. Figures, tables, references, index. Cloth, $35.00. ISBN: 978-0-691-14540-2. Barry Eichengreen Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 806 – 808 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000841 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Marking Modern Times: A History of Clocks, Watches, and Other Timekeepers in American Life. By Alexis McCrossen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. xvi + 255 pp. Illustrations, photographs, tables, notes, index. Cloth, $45.00. ISBN: 978-0-226-01486-9. Lee Jared Vinsel Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 808 – 811 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000907 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Beggar Thy Neighbor: A History of Usury and Debt. By Charles R. Geisst. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. vi + 388 pp. Appendix, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $39.95. ISBN: 978-0-8122-4462-5. Louis Hyman Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 811 – 813 doi: 10.1017/S000768051400083X Published Online on 08th January 2015
Empire of the Air: Aviation and the American Ascendancy. By Jenifer Van Vleck. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2013. 370 pp. Illustrations, photographs, maps, notes, index. Cloth, $45.00. ISBN: 978-0-674-05094-5. Christopher Endy Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 814 – 816 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000956 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Car Country: An Environmental History. By Christopher W. Wells. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012. xxxiv + 427 pp. Photographs, illustrations, maps, figures, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $40.00. ISBN: 978-0-295-99215-0. Sarah T. Phillips Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 816 – 818 doi: 10.1017/S000768051400097X Published Online on 08th January 2015
Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of America's Children. By Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. xxii + 298 pp. Photographs, figures, tables, maps, notes, index. Cloth, $34.95. ISBN: 978-0-520-27325-2. Werner Troesken Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 818 – 820 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000889 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Stinking Stones and Rocks of Gold: Phosphate, Fertilizer, and Industrialization in Postbellum South Carolina. By Shepherd W. McKinley. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2014. xii + 230 pp. Illustrations, photographs, maps, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $69.95. ISBN: 978-0-8130-4924-3. Tom Downey Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 820 – 822 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000919 Published Online on 08th January 2015
In Search of the Amazon: Brazil, the United States, and the Nature of a Region. By Seth Garfield. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2013. xiii + 343 pp. Photographs, illustrations, tables, maps, notes, index. Cloth, $93.95; paper, $26.95. ISBN: cloth, 978-0-8223-5571-7; paper, 978-0-8223-5585-4. Anne Hanley Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 822 – 825 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000828 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Contraband: Louis Mandrin and the Making of a Global Underground. By Michael Kwass. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2014. ix + 457 pp. Illustrations, maps, references, notes, index. Cloth, $49.95. ISBN: 978-0-674-72683-3. Sophus A. Reinert Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 825 – 828 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000877 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Privateering, Piracy and British Policy in Spanish America, 1810–1830. By Matthew McCarthy. Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell Press, 2013. x + 184 pp. Illustrations, photographs, figures, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $115.00. ISBN: 978-1-84383-861-6. Michelle Craig McDonald Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 828 – 830 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000890 Published Online on 08th January 2015
The British Navy, Economy and Society in the Seven Years War. By Christian Buchet. Translated by Anita Higgie and. Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell Press, 2013. xiv + 302 pp. Index, bibliography, notes, appendices, figures, tables. Cloth, $115.00. ISBN: 978-1-84383-801-2. Thomas M. Truxes Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 830 – 833 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000786 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Tropic of Hopes: California, Florida, and the Selling of American Paradise, 1869–1929. By Henry Knight. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2013. xii + 266 pp. Illustrations, photographs, tables, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $75.95. ISBN: 978-0-8130-4481-1. Reiko Hillyer Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 833 – 836 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000865 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Tropical Whites: The Rise of the Tourist South in the Americas. By Catherine Cocks. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. ix + 275 pp. Photographs, illustrations, notes, index. Cloth, $59.95. ISBN: 978-0-8122-4499-1. Dennis Merrill Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 836 – 838 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000804 Published Online on 08th January 2015
The Sounds of Capitalism: Advertising, Music, and the Conquest of Culture. By Timothy D. Taylor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012. xx + 345 pp. Illustrations, photographs, tables, references, notes, index. Cloth, $40.00; paper, $25.00. ISBN: cloth, 978-0-226-79115-9; paper, 978-0-2261-5162-5. Sumanth Gopinath Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 838 – 842 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000944 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Transformations of Retailing in Europe after 1945. Edited by Ralph Jessen and Lydia Langer. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012. xvi + 234 pp. Figures, illustrations, tables, notes, index. Cloth, $124.95. ISBN: 978-1-4094-2444-4. Andrew Godley Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 842 – 844 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000853 Published Online on 08th January 2015
The Origins of International Banking in Asia: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Edited by Shizuya Nishimura, Toshio Suzuki, and Ranald Michie. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. xii + 251 pp. Figures, tables, bibliography, index. £60.00. ISBN: 978-0-19-964632-6. Linsun Cheng Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 844 – 846 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000920 Published Online on 08th January 2015
Rules of Exchange: French Capitalism in Comparative Perspective, Eighteenth to Early Twentieth Centuries. By Alessandro Stanziani. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. ix + 313 pp. Tables, notes, index. Cloth, $90.00. ISBN 978-1-107-00386-6. Eric Godelier Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 847 – 849 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000932 Published Online on 08th January 2015
The Employee: A Political History. By Jean-Christian Vinel. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. 293 pp. Tables, notes, index. Cloth, $47.50. ISBN: 978-0-8122-4524-0. Elizabeth Faue Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 04 , December 2014, pp 849 – 851 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000968 Published Online on 08th January 2015