Editorial
Editors’ Note Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 443 – 443 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000397 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Research Articles
Cartel Theory and Cartel Practice: The Case of the International Aluminum Cartels, 1901–1940 Espen Storli Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 445 – 467 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000385 Published Online on 15th September 2014
The study of cartels is important to economists as well as business historians, but, on the whole, there has been little cross cultivation between the two academic fields. This article examines cartel theory developed by economists in the context of the historical case of international aluminum cartels in existence before 1940. By analyzing three basic theoretical questions—when cartels appear, when they break down, and when they are successful—in light of the empirical evidence of the aluminum industry, the article argues that economics and history, although they have very different approaches, can profit from using each other’s methods when studying cartels.
Shaping Globalization: London’s Merchant Bankers in the Early Nineteenth Century Manuel Llorca-Jaña Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 469 – 495 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000403 Published Online on 31st October 2014
This article argues that entrepreneurs, not governments or markets, shaped globalization during the early nineteenth century. The article concentrates on the trading and financial activities of London merchant bankers, and in particular on the different diversification strategies they followed. Although most London merchant bankers remained cautious and did not diversify their operations either geographically or in the products they traded during this period, Huth Co. established an impressive global network of trade and lending, dealing with over six thousand correspondents worldwide in a wide range of products. This firm shaped globalization well before the transport and communication revolution of the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
When Innovation Becomes Inefficient: Reexamining Britain’s Radio Industry Peter Scott Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 497 – 521 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000415 Published Online on 31st October 2014
I examine the factors underpinning the British radio-equipment sector’s particularly poor interwar productivity performance relative to the United States. Differences in socio-legal environments were crucial in allowing key players in the British industry to derive higher monopoly rents than their American counterparts. Higher British rents in turn, had the unintended outcome of stimulating innovation around restrictive patents, initiating a path-dependent process of technical change in favor of expensive multifunctional valves. These valves both raised direct production costs and prevented British firms from following the American path of broadening the radio market beyond the household’s prime receiver.
A Tomato for All Seasons: Innovation in American Agricultural Production, 1900–1945 John Hoenig Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 523 – 544 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000427 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Economic and geographic centralization are typically seen as critical components of the industrialization of food during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The development of the fresh- and processed-tomato industries during this period offers an important counterexample to this dominant narrative. Between the late nineteenth century and World War II, the most salient characteristic of both fresh- and processed-tomato production was economic and geographic decentralization. This article argues that the emergence of sites of tomato production and processing in virtually every region of the country played a vital role in fulfilling the long-standing quest for year-round access to both fresh and processed tomatoes.
A Failure of Regulation? Reinterpreting the Panic of 1907 Bradley A. Hansen Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 545 – 569 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000439 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Lax regulation enabled trust companies to take excessive risks, according to previous studies of the Panic of 1907, leading to a loss of confidence and massive runs. These studies have, however, given relatively little attention to the historical development of trust companies. This article argues that a more historical perspective can lead to a better understanding of the institutional framework and the actions of trust companies. Depositors did not lose confidence because of inadequate regulation; depositors lost confidence in specific trust companies because of false rumors, and diversity among trust companies hindered cooperation to halt the Panic.
Announcement
Announcements Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 571 – 573 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000695 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Abstracts From Articles In International Business History Journals
Selected Abstracts from International Business History Journals Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 575 – 581 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000440 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Review Essay
Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer Per H. Hansen Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 583 – 591 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000452 Published Online on 10th October 2014
Rarely does a relatively unknown professor of economics publish a book that sells more than 200,000 copies in a few months. When critics accuse the same economist of being normative, political, of manipulating data, of misunderstanding basic economic theory, and of wanting to impoverish everyone, surely it must be because he is on to something. Other commentators, perhaps a bit prematurely, are claiming that his book is the economics book that will define twenty-first-century debate.
Book Reviews
Business in the Age of Extremes: Essays in Modern German and Austrian Economic History.Edited byHartmut Berghoff,Jürgen Kocka,andDieter Ziegler.New York:Cambridge University Press,2013. ix + 249 pp. Appendix, bibliography, index. Cloth, $90.00. ISBN:978-1-107-01695-8. Christopher Kobrak Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 593 – 595 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000476 Published Online on 31st October 2014
The Good Rich and What They Cost Us.ByRobert F. DalzellNew Haven:Yale University Press,2013. 199 pp. Illustrations, photographs, notes, index. Cloth, $28.00. ISBN:978-0-300-17559-2. Maury Klein Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 595 – 597 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000506 Published Online on 31st October 2014
The People’s Network: The Political Economy of the Telephone in the Gilded Age.ByRobert MacDougall.Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press,2014. 332 pp. Photographs, maps, illustrations, figures, notes, index. Cloth, $55.00. ISBN:978-0-8122-4569-1. Michael Stamm Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 598 – 600 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000579 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Dominion of Capital: The Politics of Big Business and the Crisis of the Canadian Bourgeoisie, 1914–1947.ByDon Nerbas.Toronto:University of Toronto Press,2013. 378 pp. Photographs, notes, index. Cloth, $80.00; paper, $34.95. ISBN: cloth,978-1-4426-4545-5; paper,978-1-4426-1352-2. Christopher Armstrong Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 600 – 602 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000609 Published Online on 31st October 2014
The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations.ByJacob Soll.New York:Basic Books,2014. viii + 276 pp. Photographs, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $28.99. ISBN:978-465-03152-8. Sophus A. Reinert Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 602 – 605 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000683 Published Online on 31st October 2014
The Unwieldy American State: Administrative Politics since the New Deal.ByJoanna L. Grisinger.New York:Cambridge University Press,2012. xiii + 309 pp. Bibliography, index. Cloth, $85.00. ISBN:978-1-107-00432-0. Elizabeth Tandy Shermer Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 605 – 608 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000555 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Fortune Tellers: The Story of America’s First Economic Forecasters.ByWalter A. Friedman.Princeton:Princeton University Press,2014. xi + 273 pp. Illustrations, photographs, maps, notes, index. Cloth, $29.95. ISBN:978-0-691-15911-9. Mark Casson Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 608 – 610 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000543 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Health Care for Some: Rights and Rationing in the United States since 1930.ByBeatrix Hoffman.Chicago:University of Chicago Press,2012. xxxv + 319 pp. Photographs, illustrations, glossary, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $30.00. ISBN:978-0-226-34803-2. Christy Ford Chapin Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 610 – 612 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000567 Published Online on 31st October 2014
The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality.ByAngus Deaton.Princeton:Princeton University Press,2013. xvi + 360 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, index. Cloth, $29.95. ISBN:978-0-6911-5354-4. Marc Egnal Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 612 – 614 doi: 10.1017/S000768051400052X Published Online on 31st October 2014
The Making of Black Detroit in the Age of Henry Ford.ByBeth Tompkins Bates.Chapel Hill:University of North Carolina Press,2012. xiii + 343 pp. Illustrations, figures, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $45.00. ISBN:978-0-8078-3564-7. Luther Adams Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 615 – 617 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000464 Published Online on 31st October 2014
German Merchants in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic.ByLars Maischak.New York:Cambridge University Press,2013. xxii + 295 pp. Maps, figures, tables, glossary, bibliography, index. Cloth, $95.00. ISBN:978-1-107-01729-0. Margrit Schulte Beerbühl Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 617 – 619 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000580 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Engineering Philadelphia: The Sellers Family and the Industrial Metropolis.ByDomenic Vitiello.Ithaca:Cornell University Press,2013. xiv + 267 pp. Photographs, illustrations, maps, notes, index. Cloth, $35.00. ISBN:978-0-8014-5011-2. John Hepp Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 620 – 622 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000646 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Refrigeration Nation: A History of Ice, Appliances, and Enterprise in America.ByJonathan Rees.Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press,2013. x + 236 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, index. Cloth, $45.00. ISBN:978-1-4214-1106-4. Terje Finstad Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 622 – 624 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000610 Published Online on 31st October 2014
A City Consumed: Urban Commerce, the Cairo Fire, and the Politics of Decolonization in Egypt.ByNancy T. Reynolds.Stanford:Stanford University Press,2012. ix + 355 pp. Illustrations, photographs, maps, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $45.00. ISBN:978-0-8047-8126-8. Robert L. Tignor Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 624 – 627 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000634 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Chicago Business and Industry: From Fur Trade to E-Commerce.Edited byJanice L. Reiff.Chicago:University of Chicago Press,2013. xii + 377 pp. Photographs, maps, illustrations, bibliography, index. Paper, $22.50. ISBN:978-0-226-70936-9. Timothy B. Spears Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 627 – 629 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000622 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Capital as Will and Imagination: Schumpeter’s Guide to the Postwar Japanese Miracle.ByMark Metzler.Ithaca:Cornell University Press,2013. xviii + 295 pp. Appendix, notes, references, index. Cloth, $49.95. ISBN:978-0-8014-5179-9. James R. Lincoln Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 629 – 632 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000592 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek across the Pacific. ByChristine R. Yano.Durham:Duke University Press,2013. xiv + 322 pp. Photographs, illustrations, tables, appendix, references, notes, index. Cloth, $89.95. ISBN:978-0-8223-5351-5. Helen Macnaughtan Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 632 – 634 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000658 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Derivate und Finanzstabilität: Erfahrung aus vier Jahrhunderten [Derivatives and Financial Stability: Experience from Four Centuries].Edited byHanna Floto-Degener.Stuttgart:Franz Steiner Verlag,2013. Institut für Bankhistorische Forschung, Bankhistorisches Archiv, Beiheft 48. 97 pp. Figures, tables. Paper, €27.00. ISBN:978-3-515-10334-3. Boris Gehlen Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 634 – 637 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000531 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Les banques et les mutations des entreprises: Le cas de Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing aux XIXe et XXe siècles [Banks and Business Change: The Case of Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries].Edited byHubert BoninandJean-François Eck.Villeneuve d'Ascq:Presses Universitaires du Septentrion,2012. 323 pp. Illustrations, photographs, maps, figures, tables, index. Paper, €25.00. ISBN:978-2-7574-0412-6. Michael S. Smith Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 637 – 639 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000488 Published Online on 31st October 2014
Le siècle des chefs: Une histoire transnationale du commandement et de l'autorité (1890–1940) [The Century of Leaders: A Transnational History of Command and Authority (1890–1940)].ByYves Cohen.Paris:Éditions Amsterdam,2013. 872 pp. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, tables, index. Paper, €25.00. ISBN:978-2-35480-120-5. Ludovic Cailluet Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 640 – 642 doi: 10.1017/S000768051400049X Published Online on 31st October 2014
L'Histoire économique en mouvement: Entre héritages et renouvellements [Economic History in Motion: Between Heritage and Renewal].Edited byJean-Claude Daumas.Villeneuve d'Ascq:Presses Universitaires du Septentrion,2012. 405 pp. Figures, tables. Paper, €30.00. ISBN:978-2-7574-0376-1. Jeff Horn Business History Review , Volume 88 , Issue 03 , September 2014, pp 642 – 644 doi: 10.1017/S0007680514000518 Published Online on 31st October 2014