BUSINESS HISTORY NEWS
The Newsletter of the Association Of Business Historians
April 2002
No. 23
ISSN 9062-9440
COUNCIL MEMBERS
President: Mary Rose
Secretary/Treasurer: Howard Cox
Newsletter Editor: Steven Tolliday
Past President: Geoffrey Jones
President-Elect: Jim Bamberg
Council Member: Andrew Popp
Ex officio:
Coleman Prize winner 2000 Janet Greenlees
Webmaster Simon Mowatt
2 CONTENTS
Visit the ABH Website
Archives for Business History: (i) Melanie Aspey on the Rothschild Archive (ii) Janice Taylor on North-West Access to Archives project
Conference Reports (i) Accounting, Business and Financial History Conference (ii) Business History of Risk
Forthcoming Conferences and Calls for Papers Seminar programmes Grants
Special Feature: Prizes for Business History
Books by ABH Members Discounts for ABH Members
EDITORIAL
This issue includes full details of the 2002 ABH Conference, which will be held in Reading on 28-29 June. It also continues a series of articles highlighting archives of interest to business historians, and contains a special feature on Prizes in Business History. Besides this it also provides full listings of forthcoming conferences, seminars, calls for papers and grants that should be of interest to ABH members. Attention of ABH members is also called to the availability of significant book and journal discounts now available to ABH members (see back cover). This is the last issue of Business History News to be edited by Steven Tolliday (University of Leeds). Starting with the October 2002 issue for the next two years, the newsletter will be edited by Andrew Popp. Items and correspondence for the next issue (October 2002) should be sent to:
Andrew Popp, School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX
E-mail: [email protected]
3 VISIT THE ABH WEBSITE
http://www.sbu.ac.uk/abh
(Note: Major site update February 2002)
The Association’s website gives members up-to-date information about the ABH and its activities, promotes awareness of the association, and encourages the study of business history. The site has detailed links to resources for business historians, such as archives, organisations and business history centres. The links are up-to-date, and the site also offers descriptions and evaluations of the resources available. In addition there are conference announcements, conference reviews and funding information – including information on awards such as the Coleman and Cass prizes. The ABH aims to continuously develop the site into a resource which business historians and their students will be able to use as the first port of call. The site is hosted at South Bank University by Simon Mowatt. Please let Simon have feedback on additional resources that members feel should be added to the site. Please bookmark the new site and be sure to spread the address to interested colleagues and students.
Contact: Simon Mowatt ([email protected])
4 ARCHIVES FOR BUSINESS HISTORY
The Rothschild Archive By Melanie Aspey
Based on the business records of the merchant bank N M Rothschild & Sons, The Rothschild Archive is the responsibility of a charitable trust created in 1999 to ensure the future of the collection and to encourage the development of an international centre for research into the many facets of history in which the Rothschild family has played a part.
In spite of enormous interest in the Rothschild family and detailed research on the family itself and its role in society, large tracts of the Archive remain almost untouched. When the archivists produced a Guide to the Collection1 they had to break the seals on dozens of packets of papers that had been wrapped up in the 1920s when a basic list of the collection was compiled. Some areas of potential interest to business historians are described below.
Nathan Rothschild as a Manchester textile merchant, 1798 to 1809 Nathan Rothschild left his native Frankfurt in 1798 to travel to Britain and to establish his own division of the family trading business, which depended heavily on British textiles. The records of this business - correspondence and accounts - document the network of contacts built up by the firm, both in Britain and throughout Europe. Nathan dealt with printers in Paisley and Yorkshire, and shipped his goods to the continent via Hull. Four volumes of cutters' payments and wages books name the local workers paid to finish off the cloth, while the jewel in the crown of the collection, 'The Cotton Book' is a record of the samples of the textiles that Nathan sold to his customers.
The London Business After a decade in Manchester, Nathan Rothschild moved to London. He took premises in the City of London, with a warehouse attached so that he could continue to trade in goods, but the next decade was dominated by the family's work for the British government, supplying coin to Wellington's armies and paying subsidies to British allies.
The business remained interested in certain commodities, and the Archive contains voluminous correspondence from the bank's contacts with shippers, dock companies and forwarding agents across Europe. One of
1 The Rothschild Archive: Guide to the Collection published by The Rothschild Archive, 2000
5 the more fascinating aspects to the correspondence is the possibility of tracing business networks. For example, G. S. Meyer from the Bradford firm of Meyer & Schönfeld2, which dealt mainly in worsted stuffs, opened an account with Rothschilds in London in December 1838 with a letter of credit for £5,000 by Michaelson & Benedicks. The account was designed to allow purchases from small producers around Leeds, Manchester and Bradford. Michaelson & Benedicks3 of Stockholm had enjoyed a business relationship with Nathan Rothschild's father in Frankfurt since 1791.
The Rothschilds were responsible in large part for the development of railway systems in Europe. The family and their technical advisers toured Britain to examine the growing railway network, subsequently placing orders for raw materials and components with Nasmyth Gaskell & Co., Bridgewater Foundry, Patricroft, Manchester (for locomotives for the Kaiser Ferdinands Norbahn in Austria) and with Stephenson and other companies. Members of the family in Britain were directors of the French Chemin de fer du Nord, and received detailed weekly accounts of the running of that system, which even noted incidents of line guards being asleep on duty.
The Royal Mint Refinery Nathan Rothschild began to deal in bullion from 1809 and his successors retained a close involvement with many aspects of this precious commodity, receiving gold dust from agents in California and Australia, securing rights over the Spanish quicksilver mine in Almadén (in order to sell the quicksilver to refiners of gold and silver bullion) and in 1852, taking over the lease of the Royal Mint Refinery in the East End of London. The Refinery business was sold to Engelhards in 1967, at which point many of its records were destroyed but enough survive to make a study of the history of the business a potentially rewarding project.
Further information about the Archive is available at www.rothschildarchive.org Please address any enquiries to [email protected]
2 RAL XI/38/178: Meyer & Schönfeld, 1838-1845, 1 box 3 RAL XI/38/179: Michaelson & Benedicks, 1826-1859, 2 boxes
6
Mills, Mansions and Corner Shops
Mills, Mansions and Corner Shops is the second phase of the North West’s Access to Archives (A2A) project. A consortium of 26 archive repositories in the area has been created to raise funds and carry out this project. A2A is the English strand of the scheme to produce a UK wide archive network and aims to create a virtual national archives catalogue by converting paper-based finding aids and making the information available from one source on the World Wide Web. www.a2a.pro.gov.uk This project is part of Phase 2 of the national project and will contribute 56,000 pages. A2A stands alongside sister projects in Scotland, Wales and the higher education sector, which together will constitute an archives network across the UK and will open up archives to the whole public, in England, the UK and world wide.
The project will involve the retroconversion of catalogues of Business, Industry, Family and Estate archives. These topics have been selected as being representative of the historical development of the north west region. Once predominately a rural area, the region was at the heart of the industrial revolution, playing a part in trade, commerce and industrial innovation. The archives selected for this project show this development and include collections of regional, national and even international importance.
The businesses and industries, which will be covered in this project, are disparate, yet representative of the region and its history. Archives from the smallest local tradesman, to the regional offices of local industries are included, along with the whole national archive of the gas industry. The addition of these records to the A2A database would produce a major resource for economic historians, local historians and social history, with particular strengths being: *Trade (national and international) *Cotton *Coal *Gas *Chemicals *Solicitors and the Law
The archives comprise financial records, ledgers and accounts, administrative documents, wages and personnel records, correspondence,
7 plans and records of activities. These records give an insight into the workings of individual businesses, but also provide evidence of the impact of industry and business on a community and the ways industry and locality shaped each other.
Examples of collections to be covered by the project are:
S Beechams Pills Co Ltd, 1877-1977 S Correspondence, business records and papers of Samuel Crompton, inventor of the spinning mule, including mule survey of 1811. S Bibby Line shipowners, Liverpool 1812-1973 S Carrs Biscuit Manufacturer, Cumbria 1812-1973 S Casartelli Brothers, mathematical instrument makers, Liverpool 1882- 1944 S Davies & Co, solicitors of Warrington, 16th-20th cent S K Shoes Ltd, Kendal, 1842-1979 S Manchester Ship Canal Company, 1882-1959 S George Starbuck and Company, tramcar manufacturers, Birkenhead, 1859-1988 S Renolds Chains Ltd, munitions manufacturer, Manchester, 20th century S Thomas Rivett Ltd, Cotton doublers, Stockport 1899-1922
The consortium includes Cumbria Record Office, Liverpool and Merseyside Record Office, National Gas Archive, Greater Manchester County Record Office, Lancashire Record Office, Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, John Rylands University Library, Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies, Manchester Archives and Local Studies and the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, Archives Department. The consortium is also supported by Re:source, The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, Business Archives Council of the North and the North West Regional Archive Council.
The consortium needs to make a strong funding case for this major project, so we would be grateful for messages of support, which could be included in the project to the following address:
Janice Taylor Archive Development Officer, North West Museums Service, Griffin Lodge, Cavendish Place, Blackburn BB2 2PN Email: [email protected]
8 CONFERENCE REPORTS
The 13th Accounting, Business and Financial History Conference, held at the Cardiff Business School, 12-13 September 2001.
The 13th ABFH Conference, sponsored by the Centre for Business Performance of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, was hosted by the Business History Research Unit of the Cardiff Business School on 12-13 September 2001. The conference attracted 42 participants including eleven overseas delegates from France, Holland, Spain, Japan and the United States. Fourteen UK academic institutions were represented at Cardiff. Twelve papers were presented at the conference’s five sessions. The first session after lunch on Wednesday afternoon began with a paper from John Quail on the development of management accounting on the British nationalised railways and the way that accounting was (and was not) used. A second purpose of the paper was to set these finding against some of the implicit assumptions in the work of Trevor Boyns and Dick Edwards and to suggest some tentative ways forward. Given that Trevor Boyns chaired the session and Dick Edwards was in the audience, this ensured lively post-paper exchanges. Yannick Lemarchand (Université de Nantes) drew attention to the fact that management accounting is very often presented as a tool for optimising decisions within the firm, but his article proceeded along rather different lines. Instead, Professor Lemarchand argued that the implementation of la comptabilité analytique in France, during the first half of the twentieth century, was the result of the willingness to limit price competition and social networks in the Granovetter (1994) sense as well as of the political questioning of economic liberalism. Following tea and Welsh cakes, the second session began with Geoff Jones (Said Business School and Keble College, Oxford) critique of accounting historiography which, he argued, fails to embody the full scope of the historiographical debates that have taken place in the mainstream history literature. His paper sought to illustrate some of the dilemmas, choices and controversies in accounting historiography using the particular field of accounting in English parishes as an exemplar. Dr. Jones explored some of the constraints that, he believes, accounting has imposed on itself in the name of various historiographical orthodxies and argued that many potentially valuable historiographies will be lost unless reconsideration of some cherished assumptions is undertaken. The final paper presented ahead of the pre-dinner reception sponsored by Taylor &
9 Francis saw Fernando Gutiérrez (Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla) challenge the notion of sophisticated management accounting practices being dated towards the end of the nineteenth century, as argued by Anglo-Saxon historiographers such as Johnson and Kaplan (1987). The paper demonstrates the use of a range of management accounting techniques by a cross-section of Spanish companies in the second half of the eighteenth century. Robert Luther (Bristol Business School) started Thursday morning by drawing our attention to the fact that, although the practise of ‘closing’ company ledgers each year and presenting periodic accounts is firmly established around the world today, it is a procedure that was not universally adopted until the beginning of the twentieth century. This contention is illustrated by reference to mining companies which, especially prior to 1914, had the characteristics of single ship ventures. Through the examination of company reports and synthesising the ideas of prominent accounting thinkers, Robert Luther’s paper showed that, on the question of periodicity, a ‘one size fits all’ approach is potentially too restrictive. The financial reporting theme was carried forward by Kees Camfferman (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam) whose paper, written jointly with Steven Zeff (Rice University, Houston, Texas), focused on financial reporting innovations at Unilever from the 1920s to the 1940s. By tracking Unilever’s financial reporting practises and demonstrating the role that company officials played in drafting the ICAEW’s Recommendations on Accounting Principles, the paper argues that the Unilever should be ranked amongst such companies as Dunlop Rubber as key actors in the modernisation of British financial reporting practises during the second quarter of the twentieth century. In a paper entitled ‘The audit committee of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad: 1827-1830’, Gary J Previts (Case Western Reserve University), William D Samson (University of Alabama) and Dale L. Flesher (University of Mississippi) revealed the discovery of the use of audit committees at B&O 175 years ago, as part of the controls established by capital providers at the formation of a venture about to raise an unprecedented amount of external capital. The paper explores the scope of the committee’s activities, the outcomes of its findings, and argues that discovery of the role of this committee establishes historical context for today’s audit process and audit committee. David Higgins (Sheffield University) and Steve Toms (University of Nottingham Business School) traced the financial history of the Lancashire cotton textile industry through the sharp post-war boom of 1919-20 and the sudden crisis that followed. Using a sample of representative companies, they show that firms adopted inappropriate
10 financial structures and that these acted as the decisive constraint on the adoption of recovery strategies. The paper explained how the relationship between indebtedness and asset values prevented subsequent internal financial retrenchment, restructuring and re-equipment, and dictated the competitive processes within the industry. It demonstrated that financial constraints were the decisive factor determining the feasibility of competitive strategies available to the industry’s leaders. Mark Billings (Sheffield Hallam University) offered a historical perspective on capital in English banking, 1920-70, based on joint work with Forrest Capie (City University Business School). They argue that British banks have always attached great importance to capital and are under greater scrutiny on this issue than ever before. However, it was not until the voluntary decision of banks to disclose ‘hidden reserves’, in 1969, that a true picture of British banks’ capital emerged. Their paper examines evidence on measures of capital and attitudes to capital banking in what is considered to be the ‘cartel’ period of British banking. The final session, after lunch on Thursday, saw Judith Slinn (Oxford Brookes University) speak to a paper entitled ‘City law firms – the transformation to big business in the twentieth century’. She identified the forces driving the periods of dynamic growth, particularly in the second half of the twentieth century. Comparative dimensions were provided by examinations of contemporary developments in UK accountancy firms and US law firms. Next, Marianne Pitts (Warwick Business School) presented work, undertaken jointly with her colleague at Warwick, Graham D. Sadler, and Martin J. Conyon of The Wharton School, University of Pensylvania, on UK managerial pay and equity incentives between 1935 and 1997. Revelations include the finding that UK directors’ cash compensation increased twenty-fold over the period studied, that managerial ownership became twenty times greater, and that managerial incentives had increased, with one estimate showing equity incentives to be 250% higher in 1997 compared with 1935. The conference concluded with Lynne Oat’s study of attempts by the Australian government to delineate closely held companies for taxation purposes over the period 1930-72. The author concludes that the government’s response, throughout, was inadequate in a number of respects, and encouraged tax avoidance practices through inept drafting of the relevant legislation and a slow response to perceived abuses on the part of taxpayers. John Richard Edwards (Cardiff Business School)
11
THE BUSINESS HISTORY OF RISK
The Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR) of the London School of Economics, in conjunction with the Centre for Business History, University of Leeds, organised a one-day seminar in February 2002 to discuss the Business History of Risk. The seminar, which was sponsored by the ESRC, brought together business historians, economists, accountants, and risk analysts to develop an interdisciplinary discussion on understandings of risk by employers, workers and governments in different historical settings.
The seminar began at the level of government. Tony Freyer (University of Alabama) surveyed patterns of antitrust and risk regulation in different national systems of capitalism, focusing on divergent national consciousnesses of accountability and competition. He described the US judicially-centered and damages-based approach to regulation, and the US impetus to internationalise it in the second half of the 20th century. But he also contrasted it with German and Japanese attempts to control risks through cartels before the War. Although the American system had a powerful impact on reshaping the German and Japanese systems after the war, it did not wholly replace the older systems (though it was more powerful in reshaping certain levels of their competitive environments than others). The cartel system proved surprisingly durable in Europe and Japan, in new forms, and the US model has not spread to other countries in any systematic form.
Turning to industrial management of risks, Oliver Westall (University of Lancaster) focused on the insurance industry as a bearer of risk. He pointed out that the contribution of insurance to risk management has actually been quite limited historically. It has also almost always taken shape in interaction between private enterprise and wider state social security policies. He highlighted the lack of systematic risk assessment in most traditional insurance businesses in the past and the rather narrow fronts on which statistical risk evaluation had advanced. Cartels and common practices and norms had often sufficed as long as competition between insurers was only moderate. But the proliferation of products and the emergence of competitive companies since the interwar period gradually broke down cartel control of rates, and the emergence of direct insurers and ‘mass customisation’ has transformed the nature of risk management in recent years.
12 Jo Melling (University of Exeter) looked at the question of the risks borne by employees in industrial employment, by considering the history of industrial silicosis. He looked at claims that trade unions have been biased towards the pursuit of compensation rather than prevention and regulation, and in particular probed the issue of perception and understanding of risks and the role of ‘social norms’ when individual workers evaluated them. ‘Acceptable risks’ have been politically and socially constructed and the medical evaluation of risk has been an area of considerable contestation between employers and workers. In the end, union positions have often been shaped by their lack of power: they could only bargain about the risks, and not define the terms of the debate. They have perhaps been most effective when they have been able to make the costs of compensation powerful drivers for change.
At the other level of the risk spectrum lay businesses who claim to systematically deal with the management of risk. Philip Augar (author of The Death of Gentlemanly Capitalism (Allen Lane, 2000)) discussed the City of London and the management of risk before and after the ‘Big Bang’. As a former practitioner in British investment banking, Augar illuminated the changing cultures of ‘risk’ in the City. He stressed that before the ‘Big Bang’ the City, with its emphasis on fixed commissions and cosy self-regulation, was not used to dealing with significant risk. But the creation of integrated investment banks after 1987 exposed institutions to quite new types of risk. The organizations themselves had few structures to deal with in-house risk management, and the shift to shareholder ownership created all sorts of new moral hazards.The newly formed integrated operations lacked risk management skills and most of them quickly fell prey to foreign investment banks (often from highly regulated and protected backgrounds) which were able to use their scale and muscle to take over the vulnerable British institutions.
The seminar highlighted the fact that although ‘risk’ is a recurrent issue in business history and in many of the theories that it draws on (such as theories of entrepreneurship or regulation), little work focuses directly on understanding the nature of risk itself. This comparative and interdisciplinary session highlighted multiple aspects that could be pursued by further research.
13 FORTHCOMING BUSINESS HISTORY CONFERENCES
THE ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS HISTORIANS Website: http://www.sbu.ac.uk/abh
2002 Annual Conference Friday June 28th to Saturday June 29th All of us at the Centre for International Business History are excited about hosting the 2002 Association of Business Historians’ annual conference. The ABH Conference committee (Howard Cox, Andrew Godley, Geoff Jones and Mary Rose) received a record number of paper and session proposals. Partly in consequence we have fitted in over twenty sessions, each of three papers, so this will be the biggest ever ABH annual conference. Moreover, with a high proportion of graduate students presenting, this will surely be the youngest ABH conference ever!
The conference will be held at The University of Reading’s ISMA Centre. This is a stunning venue, having won a clutch of architectural awards. It has the full range of facilities, complete with auditorium and small seminar rooms for the sessions, bar and refreshments for the thirsty, and trading screens linked to the City for the nervous! Access for the disabled is straightforward.
The University of Reading’s conference accommodation consists of single en suite rooms in a purpose designed conference centre. However, their number is limited. And while we have already booked additional, good quality accommodation just off the campus, we will have to insist that the on-site accommodation is allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. For anyone booking before May 1st 2002 we will guarantee accommodation. Anyone booking after that date should contact me first to see if any spaces are left. If no space is available in our pre-booked accommodation, we will direct you to some alternative local options. Please note that any cancellations after Friday June 14th cannot be refunded. (A booking form is attached at the end of the programme)
14 PROGRAMME
Session 1 (Friday 11.00 –12.30) 1A: Fashioning the Corporate Image: Chair: Barry Supple (Cambridge) Charlotte Butler (Euro-Asian Centre, INSEAD) and John Keary (Keary-Harper Associates), ‘Fashion and Image in Business: the Inchcape Group 1958-1998’ Christopher McKenna (Brasenose College, Oxford), ‘The Selling of Strategy: The Marketing of an Academic Discipline by Management Consultants, 1960-2000’ Richard Coopey (University of Wales, Aberystwyth), ‘Investing in a New Image: Rebranding 3i for the 1980s’
1B: Pharmaceuticals: Chair: Sally Horrocks (Leicester) Judy Slinn (Oxford Brookes), ‘Marketing prescription pharmaceuticals – a special case?’ Viviane Quirke (Oxford Brookes), ‘Science and the corporate image: A case study from the pharmaceutical industry’ Tony Corley (CIBH, University of Reading), ‘Organisational Change and Innovation in Pharmaceuticals: Beechams 1928-44 and 1951-70’
Session 2 (Friday 1.30-3.00) 2A: Drink: Chair: Richard Wilson (UEA) Paul Duguid (University of California, Berkeley), ‘Developing Brands: The Case of Wine in the Nineteenth Century’ Teresa da Silva Lopes (CIBH, University of Reading), ‘The Life of Brands in Alcoholic Beverages’ Steve Jones (University of Dundee), ‘Brand Building and Structural Change in the Scotch Whisky Industry since 1975’
2B: Owners & Stakeholders: Chair: Rowena Olegario (Vanderbilt) Isabelle Lescent-Giles (Universite de Paris-Sorbonne), ‘Changing the Public Image of the Water Industry’ Christopher Kobrak (ESCP-EAP European School of Management), ‘German Business Culture and Corporate Governance: Mark Roe and the historical roots of German capitalism’ Paolo Di Martino (University of Pisa & City University Business School, London), ‘Approaching Disaster: A comparison of personal bankruptcy legislation in Italy and England, 1880-1930’
15
2C: Retailing: Chair: John Benson (Wolverhampton) Louise Curth and Gareth Shaw (University of Exeter) and Andrew Alexander (University of Surrey), ‘The Evolution of British Grocery Retailing: the Somerfield archives’ Charles Loft (BP History Project), ‘’A Market Mesmerised by Price’: BP's UK petrol retailing in the 1970s’ Takahide Yamaguchi (CIBH, University of Reading & Fukushima University, Japan) and Hiroyuki Yoshida (CIBH, University of Reading & Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan), ‘Fast Retailing: an analysis of FDI and supply chain management in fashion retailing’
Session 3 (Friday 3.30-5.00) 3A: Women on the Move: Chair: Mara Kiere (Oxford) Ralph Harrington (University of York), ‘Beyond the Bathing Belle: images of women in inter-war British railway publicity’ Peter Lyth (University of Tel Aviv), ‘Girdle Wars: the changing image of the air stewardess in airline advertising, 1945-1975’ Maggie Walsh (University of Nottingham), ‘From the 'new woman' to Lady Greyhound: images of American women in bus travel’
3B: Advertising: Chair: Tony Slaven (Glasgow) Hubert Bonin (Bordeaux Political Sciences Institute), ‘Image & Consumption: commercial policy and brand strategy of French banks, 1900-2000’ Valerie Johnson (BP History Project), ‘Orientalism, sexism and patriotism in BP’s petrol advertising in the 1920s and 1930s’ Veronique Pouillard (Universite Libre de Bruxelles), ‘The development of advertising agencies in Belgium during the interwar period’
3C: Cotton Textile Industry: Chair: Sue Bowden (Sheffield) Steve Toms (University of Nottingham), ‘Financial Networks and the Growth of the Cotton Industry, 1815-1886’ David Clayton (University of York), ‘Buy British Cottons: the British cotton textile industry and collective marketing strategies, 1945-1960’ Javier Fernandez Roca (University of Pablo de Olavide), ‘Dynastic and non-dynastic firms in the Spanish Cotton Textile Industry’
Coleman Prize Dissertation Session, Friday 5.15-6.15 Judges: Oliver Westall (Lancaster University) and Janet Greenlees (University of Leicester)
16 Session 4 (Saturday 9.00 – 10.30) 4A: The Business of Health: Chair: Sue Bowden (Sheffield) Arthur McIvor (University of Strathclyde) Image, Innovation and the Consumption of Workers' Bodies: the state, employers and occupational health and safety in British cotton manufacturing, 1890-1939 Janet Greenlees (University of Leicester) The Image of Health: the role of the medical professional in promoting health in the cotton weaving industries of Massachusetts and Lancashire, 1880-1939 Ian Convery and John Welshman (Lancaster University) Migration, 'Multi-Occupation', and Medical Officers of Health: housing the 'South Asian' worker
4B: Reputation: Chair: Duncan Ross (Glasgow) Peter Scott (CIBH, University of Reading), ‘The Twilight World of Interwar Hire Purchase’ David Higgins (University of Sheffield), ‘Commercial Morality and Merchandise Marks during the inter-war years’ Yves Sancey (CIBH, University of Reading), ‘Image, Reputation and Moral Suasion in Financial Services, Britain and Switzerland 1914-1927’
4C: Womenswear: Chair: Mike French (Glasgow) Pierre Vernus (Centre Pierre Leon, Universite Lyon 2), ‘Fashion, Product Innovation and Trade Policy in the Lyons Silk Industry, 1880- 1930’ Shinobu Majima (St Catherine's College, Oxford), ‘Fashion Uncertainty and Retail Organisations’ Elisabetta Merlo (Bocconi University, Milan), ‘Brands and the Italian Fashion System in the 19th century’
Session 5 (Saturday 11.00-12.30) 5A: Beauty and Brands: Chair: Mary Rose (Lancaster) Peter Miskell (CIBH, University of Reading), ‘From Cosmetic to Commodity?: the international marketing and distribution of toothpaste, 1950-1990’ Geoff Jones (CIBH, University of Reading), ‘The Business of Beauty: the growth of multinational beauty companies from the 1950s’ Nuria Puig (Universite Complutense de Madrid), ‘The Search for Identity: Spanish perfume in the international market, 1901-2001’
17 5B: Menswear: Chair: Howard Cox (South Bank) Giorgio Riello (UCL), ‘The Gentle Craft': the strategy and organisation of the London shoemaking trade in the long 18th century’ Katrina Honeyman (University of Leeds), ‘Masculinity, markets and menswear: the making of the male consumer, 1920-1940’ Laura Ugolini (University of Wolverhampton), ‘Wartime consumption: selling civilian menswear, 1914-1918’
5C: Technology and Consumption: Chair: Maurice Kirby (Lancaster) John Wilson (University of Nottingham), ‘The British Electronics Industry: Markets, Innovation and Performance, 1945-75’ Onno De Wit (Erasmus University Rotterdam) Adri Albert de la Bruheze (University of Twente), ‘The Mediation of Technology: Dutch multinationals in the 20th century and the development and marketing of hi-tech products’ Ruggero Ranieri (University of Manchester) Jonathan Aylen (UMIST), ‘Wide strip mills and their markets in postwar Western Europe’
Session 6 (Saturday 1.30 – 3.00) 6A: Music:Chair (TBA) Peter Martland (Pembroke College, Cambridge), ‘Trading in Tsarist Russia: the experience of The Gramophone Company Ltd, 1899-1918’ Gerben Bakker (LSE), ‘Manageing a Music Multinational: the international strategy of Polygram, 1945-1999’ Siobhan McAndrew (Nuffield College, Oxford), ‘The response of commercial opera companies to the emergence and retreat of public funding, 1930-2000’
6B: Regions and Businesses in Comparative Perspective Chair: Robin Pearson (Hull) Ola Honningdal Grytten (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration), ‘Wage differences and convergence in the 19th century Norwegian maritime labour market’ Anna Spadavecchia (LSE), ‘State subsidies and the sources of company finance in Italian Industrial Districts, 1951-1991’ Ferry de Goey (Centre for Business History (CBG), Erasmus University), ‘Regional Policy and Industrial Development in the Netherlands during the 20th century’
18
6C: Marketing Strategies:Chair: Roger Lloyd-Jones (Sheffield Hallam)
Sophie Chauveau (Centre Pierre Leon, Universite Lyon 2), ‘Innovation and Consumption in the French Pharmaceutical Industry’ Marc Prat Sabartes (EUI Florence), ‘The Commercial Structure of the Spanish Cotton Industry, 1850-1936. When and Why did travellers appear?’ Nicky Ryan (London College of Printing), ‘Refashioning the Prada Universe’
Session 7 (Saturday 3.15 – 4.30) 7A: Mass Transit Systems: Chair: Terry Gourvish (LSE)
Tony Arnold and Sean McCartney (University of Essex), ‘The returns to innovation: the profitability of Britain's railways, 1830-1855’ Mark Casson (CIBH, University of Reading), ‘The Structure of the Early British Railway Network’ Raphael Schapiro (Nuffield College, Oxford), ‘Public Ownership of Utilities and Private Investment: the case of British Electric Traction’
7B: Forecasting Demand: Chair: Bob Fitzgerald (Royal Holloway)
Trevor Boyns (Cardiff Business School), ‘Forecasting Demand: a means to more effective business management?’ Kai Yiu Chan (Tunghai University), ‘Rice, Flour and Urban Food Consumption in Pre-war China, 1912-1936’ Jonathan Brown (University of Reading), ‘Selling Ploughs to Farmers’
7C: New Themes in Entrepreneurship: Chair (TBA)
David Jeremy (Manchester Metropolitan), ‘The Self Image of the Entrepreneur’ Andrew Godley (CIBH, University of Reading), ‘The Global Emergence of Ethnic Entrepreneurship’
End of Conference
Conference Organiser: Dr Andrew Godley CIBH, Reading. [email protected]
19 THE ASSOCIATION OFBUSINESS HISTORIANS 2002 Annual Conference - Friday June 28th to Saturday June 29th
Name: Institutional Affiliation: Address:
Phone: ( ) E-mail (please put ‘None’ if none):
ABH Membership Fees ٱ (Annual (£10 or £15 for international members ٱ (Triennial (£27 or £40 for international members
CONFERENCE CHARGES Inclusive residential rate (including lunch on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th June and the Conference dinner on Friday 28th June) ٱ (ABH Members (£135 ٱ (ABH Members who are Graduate students rooms) (£55 ٱ (Non-members (£160
Non-residential rate (including catering as above) Friday and Saturday ٱ (ABH Members - Full (£95 ٱ (ABH Members - Graduate students (£35 ٱ (Non-members (£125
Friday or Saturday only ٱ (Sat (£65 ٱ (ABH Members - Full Fri (£80 ٱ (Sat (£95 ٱ (Non-members Fri (£110
Total Payment £ Please make cheques payable to ‘The University of Reading’ and send them to:Dr Andrew Godley, ABH Conference - Centre for International Business History, School of Business, University of Reading, PO Box 218 Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AA. UK.
N.B. Additional nights can be booked at £60 per diem. Double rooms can be booked for an additional £30. Please amend cheques and let me know accordingly. Book before May 1st 2002 for guaranteed accommodation. Any cancellations after Friday June 14th cannot be refunded
20 THE ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS HISTORIANS
CALL FOR PAPERS, 2003 CONFERENCE
INTERACTIONS & EXCHANGES: NEW BOUNDARIES FOR RESEARCH & TEACHING
The 2003 ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS HISTORIANS conference will be held at CHURCHILL COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE on Friday 30th to Saturday 31st May. The primary aim of the conference will be to encourage interactions between business history and other disciplines through a mixture of workshops and sessions. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
WORKSHOPS S Teaching: who, why & how? S Future research directions & funding: thematic priorities S Practitioners & audiences: institutional influences, specialisation, relevance S Theory and practice: sociological, economic, organisational SESSIONS S Ethics & business: health, environment, accounting standards S Diversity & inclusion: gender, race, cross-cultural relations S Government & public affairs: politics, ideology & business, lobbying & influence, boundaries between states and firms S Technology: cultures of innovation, diffusion & relocation of technology, mature & new technologies S Imperialism: expansion of British business overseas, business & decolonisation, cultures of business & imperialism S International relations: state & non-state actors, multinationals, globalisation
The organisers welcome historians working in all disciplines and on any time period or country. Panel and paper proposals (including a 1-2 page abstract for all participants) should be submitted to Dr Jim Bamberg, History Faculty, University of Cambridge, West Road, Cambridge CB3 9EF. Tel/fax +44 (0) 1223 335327. E-mail [email protected] Deadline for submissions is 31st October 2002.
21 European Business History Association Annual Congress in Helsinki, August 22nd-24th 2002: « Companies, Owners, Employees »
The Conference will be organised by the Department of Social Science History at the University of Helsinki, in cooperation with the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration. The theme of the conference is Companies - Owners - Employees. The institutional separation of ownership and -management is one of the most fundamental changes in the history of capitalism. Issues concerning its implications for ownership structures, corporate governance, shareholder value tensions between owners and management, and worker participation will be the focus of the conference.
S A doctoral thesis session will also be held and individuals who have recently published theses are invited to take part. S Notification of acceptance of papers will be provided by January 30th 2002. Deadline for final papers: June 15th 2002. S In addition to the scientific program there will be receptions and excursions. The University of Helsinki main building is the conference site and it is situated in the core of the city centre. All hotels are within a short walking distance. S More detailed information about the conference programme, registration and accommodation is available on our webpages: S www.valt.helsinki.fi/yhis/ebha2002 S For more information, please contact the organisation committee: Head of organising committee Secretary General Prof. Riitta Hjerppe Dr. Susanna Fellman Dept. of Social Science History Dept. of Social Science History Economic & Social History Economic & Social History University of Helsinki University of Helsinki Phone: + 358-191 24951 Phone: + 358-191 24934 Fax: + 358-191 24924 Fax: + 358-191 24924 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]
We look forward to seeing you in Helsinki in the summer of 2002!
22 REGISTRATION FORM THE 6TH EUROPEAN BUSINESS HISTORY CONFERENCE Helsinki, Finland, August 22nd-24th 2002
Please, fill in the following registration form in order to register for the EBHA conference in Helsinki. Registration will not be effective until payment has been received. We will send you a confirmation after receipt of your payment.
PARTICIPANT Name: Institution / Organization: Address: Country: Phone: Fax: E-mail:
REGISTRATION FEE EBHA Members: Before April 1, 2002 euros 140 After April 1, 2002 euros 195 Non-EBHA-members: euros 195 Students * euros 70
The registration fee includes all meals on Friday and Saturday and one reception on Thursday. The fee does not include hotel accommodation.
PAYMENT Payment through creditcard: -Please charge to my creditcard ______euros Card no: ______Valid through: ______/ ______Eurocard/Mastercard ____ Visa
Cardholder:______Signature:______We prefer payment by credit card. Checks are not accepted!
Please return this form by mail or fax to: EBHA 2002 Organizing Committee Dept. of Social Sciences History P.O. Box 54 FIN- 00014 University of Helsinki Fax number +358-9-191 24924
23 26th-29th June 2003 Joint Conference of the European Business History Association (EBHA) and the Business History Conference (BHC)
Lowell, Massachusetts ‘Regions, nations and globalisation’
In July 2003, the EBHA and the US-based Business History Conference will come together for a joint international conference in Lowell, Massachusetts. The theme will be: “Regions, Nations, and Globalisation”. Papers are invited on the following themes:
Building global infrastructures S Transport S Information technology S Telecommunications
Global actors and their economic and social impact S Multinationals or national companies with international operations? S Hybridisations S Environment S Labour S Deindustrialisation vs. opportunities for new development
Globalisation and nation states S Regulation S Corporate governance S Political economies (developmental attitudes) S National systems of innovation S Creation of “super-national” institutions (e.g. EC, NAFTA)
Regions and globalisation S Metropolitan areas S Industrial districts S Inter-regional cooperation S Macroregions
24
Proposals may be submitted for individual papers or for entire panels. Each proposal should include a one-page abstract and one-page CV or resumé for each participant. Panel proposals also should have a cover letter containing a title, a one-paragraph panel description, suggestions for a chair and commentator, and contact information for the panel organizer.
Graduate students in the early stages of writing dissertations may apply for inclusion in a Dissertations in Progress session intended to discuss preliminary conclusions and methodologies in an informed but informal environment. Interested students should submit a one-page abstract of their project and a one-page vita.
Dissertations completed in the previous three years (2000-2002) are eligible for the conference's dissertation session. Proposals are welcome from Ph.D recipients in history, business administration, history of science and technology, economics, legal studies, and other fields whose work is on business history broadly defined. One dissertation will receive the Herman E. Krooss Prize for the best dissertation in business history, which includes a $500 award. Proposals should consist of a cover letter, the dissertation abstract, and the author's CV.
The deadline for receipt of submissions is September 27, 2002. The program committee is Franco Amatori (co-chair), Philip Scranton (co- chair), Wendy Gamber, Even Lange, Margaret Levenstein and Bill Mass. All graduate students presenting papers are eligible for travel grants to defray costs associated with attending the meeting.
Please send five copies of proposals to Roger Horowitz, Secretary- Treasurer, Business History Conference, P.O. Box 3630, Wilmington DE 19807, USA, phone 302-658-2400, fax 302-655-3188, @mail [email protected].
Future EBHA conventions
The EBHA will meet at Lowell on 26-29th June 2003 (see above), then in Barcelona in mid-September 2004 (organised by Albert Carreras and Mathias Kipping). The September date has been chosen because in June 2004, the American Business History Conference will hold its conference in France, at the Industrial Museum of Le Creusot, in Burgundy, with the full participation of EBHA members.
25 OTHER CONFERENCES
April 25-27 Economic & Business Historical Society Conference, Chicago
Composed of some three hundred North American and international members, the Economic & Business Historical Society holds its annual convention in locations of historical significance, and attempts to offer participants an opportunity for continuing intellectual interchange within a modest-sized group. Both the annual membership ($25) and conference registration fees ($75) are modest. Rooms at the conference hotel, the Hampton Inn & Suites near Michigan Avenue’s Golden Mile, are $129 per night.
Further details on the programme can be found at: http://www.ebhsoc.org/papers.html or from: Malcolm B. Russell, EBHS 2002 Program Chair, School of Business, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI. 49104-0075 ([email protected])
May 10-12 The Cliometric Society 2002 Conference LaCrosse, Wisconsin
The annual Cliometrics Conference in 2002 will be held on the weekend of Friday May 10 through Sunday May 12th in LaCrosse Wisconsin. The conference is designed to provide extensive discussion of new and innovative research in economic history. Typically, twelve papers are selected for presentation and discussion. These are sent out to all conference participants in advance. In the session devoted to each paper, authors make a 5-minute opening statement and the rest of the session is devoted to discussion by all conference participants. Conference participation is by invitation only, but every attempt is made to invite a mixture of new scholars and established scholars. Anyone wishing to attend should contact:
Lanna Miller, Cliometrics Conference Secretary, Department of Economics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 Telephone (520) 621-2821; e-mail: [email protected].
26 BUSINESS HISTORY AT THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC HISTORY CONGRESS 2002
July 22-26, 2002: XIII Congress of the International Economic History Association, Buenos Aires,
For more information on the conference, please consult http://www.eh.net/XIIICongress.
Sessions of special interest to business historians:
(1) "Child Labor in Historical Perspective"
Contact: Jon Moen, University of Mississippi, School of Business Administration, PO Box 1848, University MS 38677, USA E-mail: [email protected]
(2) Understanding the Global Economy through the History of Things,1000-2000
Contact: Sven Beckert, Dunwalke Associate Professor of History, Harvard University, Department of History, 210 Robinson Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Tel. (617) 495-0697. Fax (617) 496-3425 Email: [email protected]
(3) Information transmission and market integration: past and present
Contact: Yrjö Kaukiainen, History, University of Helsinki, P.O.Box 59, FIN- 00014 Helsinki, Finland. Fax: +358919122834 email: [email protected] or Karl Gunnar Persson. Economics, University of Copenhagen, Studiestræde 6, DK-1455 Denmark. Fax:+4535323000 email:[email protected]
(4) Banking in Latin America, 1870-1940: Structure, Regulation & Crises
Contact: Gail D. Triner, Department of History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1108, USA Tel: 732-932-6696 [email protected]
27 (5) Savings banks as financial intermediaries: role, performance and impact
Contact: Dr. Duncan M. Ross, Dept of Economic and Social History, University of Glasgow, 4 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland. Tel: 44-141 330 3586. Fax: 44 141 330 4889 E-mail: [email protected]
(6) American Influences in Twentieth Century Europe: Companies, Cultures and Mass Consumption
Organisers: Matthias Kipping (Centre for International Business History, The University of Reading) and Nick Tiratsoo (University of Luton and LSE Business History Unit).
Inquiries should be directed to: Mrs Margaret Gallagher at the Centre for International Business History by e-mail ([email protected]) or fax (44-118- 975-0236).
(7) The Cold War Business Challenge: Strategic Trade Controls and Western Business 1945-1990
Contact: Dr. Richard Coopey, Department of History and Welsh History University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3DY UK. Phone - +44- 01970-622662; Fax - +44 - 01970-622676 Email - [email protected]
(8) Conflict potentials in monetary unions
Contact: Lars Jonung, Research advisor, European Commisson Directorate-General ECFIN, Rue de la Loi 200 Office BU-1 5/190 B-1049 Brussels, Belgium. Phone: +32-2-299 4562, fax: +32-2-299 3499 Email:
August 29-31 The Political Economy of Globalization: Can the Past Inform the Present? Trinity College, Dublin, August 29-31, 2002
28 For information on this conference see: http://eh.net/lists/archives/eh.news/oct-2001/0000.php
Contact: Kevin H. O'Rourke, Professor of Economics, Director, Centre for the Economics of Globalization, Department of Economics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
Email: [email protected]
August 2002 Denver, Colorado Academy of Management Annual Meeting ‘Building Effective Networks’
The Management History Division of the Academy of Management warmly welcomes submissions to our program at the 2002 annual meeting.
Management History Division Domain: Pragmatic investigations into the historical evolution of managerial thought and action. Major Topics: The chronological tracing of the development of contemporary managerial concepts, techniques, behaviors, and practices with the intent of demonstrating (in)effectiveness within a given context, setting, or organization; reviews of how the discipline might learn from and avoid making the mistakes of the past; explorations into the history, traditions and evolution of businesses and industries; comparative works which demonstrate how diverse individuals and groups influenced managerial thought and practice; application of history to unify extant concepts and bodies of literature that are highly fragmented; and investigation into how management history and research might be better conducted, applied and utilized to enhance understanding of the field. Details are available at: http://www.aom.pace.edu/meetings/2002/Call_for_Submissions.htm
Conference web pages: http://www.aom.pace.edu/meetings/2002/index_flash4.html
Management History Division web pages: http://www.aomhistory.baker.edu/
Contact the 2002 MHD Program Chair, Professor Shawn Carraher:
29 Accounting, Business & Financial History Conference 17-18 September 2002
Sponsored by the Centre for Business Performance, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales
Guest Speaker – Professor Richard Macve
The conference provides delegates with the opportunity of presenting and discussing, in an informal setting, papers ranging from early working drafts to fully developed manuscripts. The format of the conference allows approximately 40 minutes for presentation and discussion in order to help achieve worthwhile feedback from those attending
In the past, many papers presented at Cardiff have subsequently appeared in print in Accounting, Business and Financial History, edited by John Richard (Dick) Edwards and Trevor Boyns, or in another of the full range of international, refereed academic accounting, business and economic history journals.
The conference will be held, this year, at the Cardiff Business School, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF1 3EU, UK, from lunchtime on Tuesday, 17 September to mid-afternoon on Wednesday, 18 September.
The fully inclusive conference fee (covering all meals, the conference dinner on Tuesday and ensuite accommodation) is £100.
Those wishing to offer papers to be considered for presentation at the conference should send an abstract of their paper (not exceeding one page) to:
Julie Roberts, Tel +44 (0)29 2087 5731 Fax +44 (0)29 2087 4419 [email protected]
The deadline for submissions is 31 May 2002 with earlier proposals for papers encouraged.
Following the refereeing process, applicants will be advised of the conference organisers’ decision on 30 June 2002.
30 October 4-5 The Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware ‘The Technological Fix’
This conference will consider technologies and technological strategies intended to address a wide variety of needs and problems in 20th century America. Provocative technological fixes have targeted such issues as dishonesty, crime, pollution, waste, danger, disease, resource depletion, time pressures, crowding, and agricultural productivity. Others have addressed social problems like the weakening of family and community bonds. Papers may discuss "fixes" that have worked, failed or were never implemented, or efforts to solve problems that earlier technologies created. We welcome analysis of the engineering, political, and marketing dimensions of the problem-solving process, as well as of their intersections.
Funds may be available to support travel to the conference by speakers. Please direct proposals and queries to:
Dr. Roger Horowitz, Associate Director, Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society, Hagley Museum and Library P.O. Box 3630, Wilmington, DE 19807 email: [email protected]; direct fax: 302-655-3188
Friday, October 4, 2002 Second Conference of the Program in Early American Economy and Society At the Library Company of Philadelphia 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia ‘Risk and Reputation: insecurity in the early American economy’
For two generations following the American Revolution, citizens looked upon their new nation's economy with anticipation and hope. Many believed that foreign nations' doubts and the crushing state and individual debts in the wake of the Revolution would vanish in the midst of new commercial and manufacturing opportunities. But in a world still based
31 more on good personal reputation than on secure institutions to regulate behavior and promote development, risk and uncertainty remained high. Dependence on foreign markets, unpredictable price swings, periodic scarcities or gluts of goods, personal miscalculations or outright deceit, and even bad weather persisted in the early republic without many safeguards against them.
At first, responses to the increasingly competitive economy echoed very old practices. Would-be market participants -- merchants, craftsmen, professionals, farmers -- cemented kinship networks, double-checked rumor, and demanded reliable reputations of their business associates. But slowly, Americans put into place the newspapers, credit ratings agencies, insurance and brokerage companies, and other mechanisms that would help mitigate some of the blows experienced by thousands of small investors in the early republic. Banks began to proliferate; in time, laws, court decisions, and new business institutions would, to an important extent, reduce entrepreneurial risks, safeguard reputation, and invite the creation of myriad new enterprises.
This one-day conference will showcase important new work about these themes. Presenters and commenters include Glenn Crothers, Edward Balleisen, Joe Rainer, Matthew Mulcahy, Toby Ditz, Bruce Mann, Brian Lusky, and Jane Kamensky.
"Risk and Reputation" is free and open to everyone interested in its themes. The full conference program will be available soon, and precirculated papers will appear September, 2002 on the website of the Program in Early American Economy and Society, www.librarycompany.org We urge you to let us know in advance if you will attend the conference; a pre-registration page may be found on the website and returned electronically. For questions and comments, please contact Cathy Matson, PEAES Director, at [email protected] Visit our website at www.librarycompany.org
10-11 October 2002 The Sixth Canadian Business History Conference Trois-Riveres, Quebec, Canada, ‘The Territories of Business’
This invitation is addressed to business historians as well as to scholars from other fields whose research has a historical perspective. The main
32 question behind this conference is: how, from colonial times to the present, has business related to space? During the last decades, the historical and economic analysis of business has focused on strategies and structures. In the process, the role of space as a significant analytical category has often been ignored and left mainly to geographers and locational theorists.And yet, the relation between business and space is essential. It goes without saying that management and marketing don't represent the same reality if we are in Canada or in Switzerland, if a company's scope is continental or local. Moreover, the configuration of the national urban network significantly affects the strategies and structures of big and small businesses alike. Thanks to the size and the diversity of its resources and population, Canada represents an interesting field for the analysis of the spatial dynamism of businesses. Topics such as the relations among Canada's large regions, the North-South axis with our American neighbour, the rivalry opposing regional metropolises, the impact of enterprises on the urban fabric and on gender relations, will be discussed during the Conference.
Papers will be grouped under three themes:
1. Relational space and business structure: the deployment of business activities in order to build a market and to supply plants with material resources; the interaction of retailers and financial institutions with urban and rural customers; the impact of managerial change on the location of decision centers, production and service centers; the transfer of activities from countryside to cities; internationalization; etc.
2. Industrial space, commercial space, and urban space: the development of urban territory resulting from the organization of production and the sale of goods and services; space and work organization; growth and change of urban space and their influence on business; influence of the enterprise on the urban setting; environmental impact etc.
3. Business migration and human migration: the impact of the establishment or the closing of a plant, shop, or service on the growth of the labour force at the local or regional level; the recruiting area of the personnel; the training of manpower and the differential geographic mobility of men and women; geographic origins of shareholders; etc.
Preference will be given to papers focusing on these themes. Proposals for panels of papers on other topics in business history will be considered. Canadian business historians have not yet set up a formal association.
33 However, for the last twenty years they have met on a regular basis . This Conference is their sixth.
The 2002 Conference will be held in Trois-Rivieres (Centre interuniversitaire d'etudes quebecoises (CIEQ). 100-word proposals for a paper and a brief curriculum vitae should be sent by March 31 2002 to: Claude Bellavance and Pierre Lanthier, Centre interuniversitaire d'etudes quebecoises (CIEQ), Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres C.P. 500, Trois-Rivieres, QC, G9A 5H7 Tel: (819) 376-5096 Fax: (819) 376-5179 Email addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]@uqtr.ca
17-20 October Society for the History of Technology Conference Toronto, Canada
The Society for the History of Technology will hold its next annual meeting in Toronto, Canada, October 17-20, 2002. The program committee invites proposals for individual papers and sessions on topics related to all aspects of the history of technology. Proposals that deal with regional or national comparative aspects of the history of technology and the cultural dimensions in technology transfers are encouraged.
Proposals for individual papers must include: 1) a one page abstract, and 2) a one-page curriculum vitae, including current postal and e mail addresses. Proposals for complete sessions must include: 1) a description of the session‚s theme; 2) a list of the presenters' names and paper titles; 3) a one page abstract and one page c.v. for each of the presenters; 4) a one page c.v. for the commentator, chairperson, and session organizer, if she or he is not participating in the session. The session description should clarify how individual papers contribute to the session's overall theme.
Proposals should be sent by 22 March 2002 to: Karin Zachmann, SHOT Program Chair; TU Darmstadt, Institut fuer Geschichte, Schloss, D- 64283 Darmstadt. 2. E-mail: [email protected]
34 NEW MEETING DATES FOR Economic History Association October 11-13, 2002
We have had to change the dates and hotel for the 2002 EHA meetings. The St. Louis Cardinals baseball schedule for 2002 is different than was expected when we originally scheduled the meetings. In the new schedule, the Cardinals have home games on our scheduled weekend. Because the Marriott Hotel hosts an open "Tailgate Party" in the hotel before and after every game, the environment will not be particularly conducive to an academic meeting. So we have reluctantly and regrettably decided to change dates and hotels. The new information is the following.
Meeting Dates: October 11-13, 2002 Hotel: Hyatt Regency at Union Station, St Louis, MO
The EHA Meetings website http://www.eh.net/EHA/meeting/ has been updated to include the new hotel, dates, rates, and so on. The Call for Papers is also posted there, and the link for online submission form. Graduate students should check out the "Grads" page for all the discounts we offer. Those completing their dissertations will want to check into the dissertation prize submission guidelines.
24-27 October Social Science History Association, Economics Network St. Louis, Missouri
The Social Science History Association will hold its 27th annual meeting at the Millennium Hotel St. Louis, Missouri, October, 24-27, 2002.
For additional information on sessions in economic and business history, contact: Scott Carson, Network Chair for Economics, [email protected]
35 Second Conference on the History and Heritage of Scientific and Technical Information Systems November 15-17, 2002 Philadelphia PA
The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) and the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) are pleased to announce the Second Conference on the History and Heritage of Scientific and Technical Information Systems, to be held November 15-17, 2002, in Philadelphia.
Emphasis for this conference will be on the period from the Second World War up through the early 1990s, including the infrastructure created by digitization, the Internet, and the World Wide Web.
Conference Themes include:
*Case studies of scientific developments or even whole disciplines that have been molded by new technologies and systems of science information *The international transfer of scientific and technical information during periods of international crisis such as World War II or the "Cold War" *The role of national and international governmental, as well as non- governmental organizations, in the communication and management of scientific and technical information
The conference will be held Friday to Sunday, November 15-17, 2002, at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut Street,Philadelphia, PA 19106.
The proceedings will be published in print and on the Web as a companion piece to the Proceedings of the 1998 Conference on the History and Heritage of Science Information Systems (
36 SEMINARS
BUSINESS HISTORY UNIT SEMINARS SUMMER TERM 2002
29 April: Camilla Brautaset (Business History Unit), ‘Was there a Norwegian Tiger? Exports and economic growth in the 19th century’
13 May: Charles Loft (University of Warwick), ‘The handmaiden of other policies: the British Transport Commission’s struggles and Whitehall’
27 May: Frederik Tell (LSE), ‘Systems integration in Electrical Power: from individual to organizational capability’
The seminars take place at 5.30pm in H615 Connaught House, Aldwych, London WC2. For further information contact Terry Gourvish: [email protected]
37 PRIZES IN THE FIELD OF BUSINESS HISTORY
Compiled by Simon Mowatt
Is the new sponsor for the ABH Coleman Prize
Awarding Prize Elegible Parties Organisation The Coleman Prize ABH PhD Thesis The Cass Prize Business History Best article in Business History Business Archives The Wadsworth Prize Best book on business history (annual) Council European Historical Gino Luzzato Prize PhD Thesis Economics Society Hagley Museum and Library and the Hagley Book Prize Best Book Business History Conference Richard R. Nelson CCC (Harvard PhD Thesis on innovation Dissertation Prize University) PAES 2001 Article Prizes PAES Journal article on early US EABH Biennial Prize for EABH Unpublished Thesis concerning banking Young Scholars Business History Newcomen Book Award Best Book published in USA each 3 years Review Newcomen-Harvard Article Business History Best article in Business History Review Award Review Newcomen-Harvard Special Business History Best article by recent PhD in Business Award Review History Review
38 The Coleman Prize
Named after the doyen of British business historians, Donald Coleman, this prize is awarded annually by the Association of Business Historians to the best PhD dissertation in British business history or by a British based business history PhD student. The value of the prize is £200.
THE ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS HISTORIANS
COLEMAN PRIZE The Association of Business Historians, Coleman Prize 2002 2002 Judges : Oliver Westall, Lancaster University and Janet Greenlees, Leicester University, 2001 Coleman winner
The Association of Business Historians invites submissions for consideration for the 2002 Coleman Prize of £200. Named in honour of Donald Coleman, the prize recognises excellence in new research dissertations in business history and is open to PhD dissertations either having a British subject or completed at a British institution. All dissertations completed in the calendar year 2000 and 2001 are eligible (with the exception of previous submissions).
The Prize is now sponsored by Adam Matthew Publications Limited. Adam Matthew Publications is a scholarly publisher which makes available original manuscript collections, rare printed books and other primary source materials in microform and electronic format. More details on the company and its products can be found at: www.adam-matthew-publications.co.uk It is a condition of eligibility for the Prize that shortlisted finalists will present their findings to the Association’s annual conference, to be held at the University of Reading, 28-19 June 2002. For consideration, please send a hard copy of your dissertation by 31 March 2002 to : Dr Janet Greenlees, Economic and Social History, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH e-mail: [email protected]
Previous award winners have been Steve Toms, Andrew Popp, and Janet Greenlees.
39 2001 Prize winner Janet Greenlees writes about the Prize, and her experience of winning
The purpose of this short piece is to raise awareness of the prize amongst potential candidates and their colleagues, more especially their supervisors and examiners. Having attended conferences and heard fellow PhD candidates talk about their research and having observed the depth of study in the field of business history, I never expected to win the Coleman Prize. When I did, and once the initial shock had worn off, I felt proud that other business historians had acknowledged my contribution to historiography and recognized my years of hard work completing the dissertation.
In addition to personal satisfaction, there is a small cash prize, the appointment to the ABH Council for one year as an ex-officio member and the role of the junior judge for the following year's competition. These rewards are helpful for becoming established in the field of business history. Winning the Coleman Prize has certainly made a difference to my career and I would encourage candidates to submit their thesis for consideration and urge those of you who know of suitable candidates to encourage them to submit their theses for consideration.
The Cass Prize
The Cass Prize, worth £250, is awarded annually for the best article published in Business History each year.
Cass Prize Winners Year Winner Title 'Ossified or Dynamic? Structure, Markets and the Competitive Process in 2000 Roy Church the British Business System of the Nineteenth Century' Christine 1999 "Negotiating the Rewards of Invention" MacLeod 1998 Steven Toms "Windows of Opportunity in the Textile Industry…" 'Invisible, Visible and 'Direct' Hands: An Institutional Interpretation of 1997 Oliver Westall Organisational Structure and Change in British General Insurance' Matthias Inter-Firm Relations and Industrial Policy: The French and German Steel 1996 Kipping Producers and Users in the Twentieth Century Robert 'Investment Group, Free-Standing Company or Multinational? Brazilian 1995 Greenhill Warrant, 1909-52' 'Marketing Strategy and the Competitive Structure of British General 1994 Oliver Westall Insurance, 1720-1980'
40
Wadsworth Prize
The annual Wadsworth Prize is presented by the Business Archives Council for the best book in business history.The prize was established as an annual competition to honour John Wadsworth on his retirement in 1977 after over 40 years of association with the BAC. Entry is made by the publisher.
Year Author Title
2000 Geoffrey Jones Merchants to Multinationals 1999 David Kynaston The City of London: Illusions of Gold, 1914-45 1998 Niall Ferguson The World's Banker: A history of the House of Rothschild Big Business: The European Experience in the Twentieth 1997 Youssef Cassis Century 1996 Richard Saville Bank of Scotland: A History 1695-1995 1995 Geoffrey Tweedale Steel City Terry Gourvish and 1994 British Brewing Industry 1830-1880 R. G. Wilson
Winners in previous years have included ABH members, Steven Tolliday, Martin Campbell-Kelly and Charles Harvey.
The 2000 Wadsworth Prize for the best book published in British business history was awarded to Geoffrey Jones, author of Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the 19th and 20th centuries (Oxford University Press). Oliver Letwin (MP and Shadow Home Secretary and one of the judges) commented: “This is a unique prize – and one which has, as one would expect, produced a strong field of contenders. It is good to see that business history is alive and well”. The other judges were Prof. Steven Tolliday and Prof. Youssef Cassis.
Gino Luzzato Prize
A prize of $1,000 named after Gino Luzzato, the most distinguished Italian economic historian of the first half of the 20th century is awarded by the European Historical Economics Society for the best doctoral dissertation on any subject relating to the economic history of Europe in the preceding two years. Information from : Elvira Ryan, St. Antony’s College, Oxford OX2 6JF. E-mail: [email protected]. Submissions should arrive no later than 30 June 2001.
41 Hagley Book Prize
The Hagley Museum and Library and the Business History Conference jointly offer an annual prize for the best book in business history, broadly defined. The 2001 prize was awarded to Dr. Regina Blaszczyk of Boston University for her book Imagining Consumers: design and innovation from Wedgwood to Corning (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000). It describes the history of the china and glasswares industries and the role that they played in the development of America’s consumer culture. The next Hagley Prize will be presented at the annual meeting of the Business History Conference in Wilmington, Delaware, April 19-21, 2002.
The prize committee encourages the submission of books from all methodological perspectives. It is particularly interested in innovative studies that have the potential to expand the boundaries of the discipline. Scholars, publishers, and other interested parties may submit nominations. Eligible books can have either an American or international focus. They must be written in English and be published during the two years prior to the award.
Information from: Dr. Michael Nash, Chief Curator, Hagley Museum and Library, P.O. Box 3630, Wilmington, DE 19807.-0630. E-mail: [email protected].
New Dissertation Prize: the Richard R. Nelson Dissertation Prize for 2001
An annual prize in the amount of $5,000 has been established in honour of Richard R. Nelson for the best doctoral dissertation in any field dealing with technological and organisational innovation in the context of markets and the broader institutional environment of business, government and the not-for-profit sectors.
1) Eligibility: Doctoral dissertations from an accredited institution of higher learning anywhere, completed in the preceding year.
2) Selection Criteria: Originality, insightfulness, command of empirical research methods, and relevance to management and policy. Equal weight will be given to each of the above 4 criteria.
42 3) Selection Process: The winner will be selected by a committee of 4 faculty members and one practitioner associated with the Consortium on Competitiveness and Cooperation (CCC) and affiliated societies. The selection committee in 2001 was David Mowery, David Teece, Sidney Winter, Richard Rosenbloom, and William Spencer.
4) The winner will be announced at the annual CCC Ph.D. Colloquium in the spring of the following year. Award: $5,000.
5) Contact: Richard S. Rosenbloom, David Sarnoff Professor, Emeritus, Harvard Business School, Boston MA 02163, phone: (617) 495-6295, fax: (617) 495-8736, email: [email protected]
Program in Early American Economy and Society PAES 2001 Article Prizes (The Library Company of Philadelphia)
The Program in Early American Economy and Society makes an annual award(s) to recognize the best journal article or articles published in the preceding year relating to an aspect of early American economic history, broadly defined, to about 1850. The awards committee welcomes submissions in such fields as the history of commerce, business, finance, agriculture, manufacturing, technology, labor, and economic policy. The author(s) of the winning article(s) will each receive $1,000. Nominations for the award should be made by someone other than the author; complete entries consist of three copies of the article and a nominating letter explaining its importance to the field of early American economic history.
Submission deadline is March 15, 2002. Please send all materials to PEAES, The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Questions may be directed to Cathy Matson, Director of PEAES, at [email protected]. For information about the Program in Early American Economy and Society, please visit the PEAES links on the Library Company’s web page: www.librarycompany.org.
43 European Association for Banking History Prize
The EABH award for young scholars will be awarded to a scholar or a team of maximum three scholars working on either an institutional, economic or social aspect of the history of European banking or on a biography of a European banker or banker’s dynasty. The prize of 2,500 Euros will be awarded during the EABH convention in Bratislava in 2003. Final submission date for the 2003 prize is 30th November 2002. For further details, please contact: EABH, Zimmerweg 6, D-60325 Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. E-mail: [email protected]
Business History Review Prizes and Fellowships
Newcomen Book Award The Newcomen Book Award is given once every three years to the best work in the field of business history published in the United States. Winners receive a cash prize of $4,000 and a scroll from the Newcomen Society of the United States. The winner is determined by a vote of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Business History Review. The winner of the prize for 1998-2000 was Geoffrey Jones, Merchants to Multinationals (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Newcomen-Harvard Article Award The Newcomen-Harvard Article Award is given every volume year to the best article published in the Business History Review. Winners receive a cash prize of $1,000 and a scroll from the Newcomen Society of the United States.
Newcomen-Harvard Special Award The Newcomen-Harvard Special Award is given every volume year to the best article in the Business History Review written by a graduate student or recent Ph.D. who has not yet published a book in the field of business history. Winners receive a cash prize of $500 and a scroll from the Newcomen Society of the United States.
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GRANTS
PASOLD RESEARCH FUND Ph.D GRANTS FOR TEXTILE HISTORY
The Pasold Research Fund is a charitable trust established to provide support for research into the history of textiles . Its fields of interest include the economic and social history of textiles, their technological development, design and conservation, as well as the history of dress and other uses of textiles.
Applications are invited from individuals at institutions within the UK for PhD bursaries of up to £2,500 which may be either for fees or other forms of support in any area or period of textile history.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS 30 June 2002.Further details and application forms can obtained from : Dr Mary Rose, Director, Pasold Research Fund, Department of Economics, University of Lancaster, Lancaster LA1 4YX. E-mail [email protected] Further details are also available on the Pasold Website http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/pasold/
Grants in Aid at Hagley Museum and Library
Short-term grants-in-aid support visits to Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware, for scholarly research in the imprint, manuscript, pictorial, and artifact collections. They are designed to assist researchers with travel and living expenses while using the research collections. Scholars receive a stipend, make use of the research holdings, and participate in the programs of the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society. A wide range of American and international topics can be explored in our printed, manuscript, and pictorial resources which include business, economic, industrial, technological cultural, architectural, labor and women's history. More information on Hagley's research collections may be obtained through our on-line catalog at http://.hagley.org. Further information on our grants and fellowships can be obtained from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society's website: http://www.hagley.lib.de.us/center.htm!
45 Low cost housing may be available on the museum grounds. Stipends are for a minimum of two weeks, maximum of two months at no more than $1,400 per month. Deadlines for the year are: March 29, June 28, and October 31.
Contact: Carol Ressler Lockman, Hagley Museum and Library, PO Box 3630, Wilmington DE 19807, email: [email protected]; fax: 302-655-3188; phone: 302-658-2400, ext. 243.
Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library Research Grants
The Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library of Duke University announces the availability of grants for researchers whose work would benefit from access to the library's archival and rare printed collections. Of particular interest to business historians is the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History. The maximum award per applicant is $1,000.
John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History
The major collections available at the Hartman Center are the extensive Archives of the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT) the oldest advertising agency in the U.S. and a major international agency since the 1920s; the advertisements and a moderate amount of agency documentation from both D'Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) and Wells Rich Greene; and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) archives and related collections documenting billboard history. The Center holds several other smaller collections relating to 19th and 20th century advertising and marketing, supported by a growing number of books, periodicals, films, and videos. In addition to research grants up to $750 for the use of any of the Hartman Center's collections, the Center will fund up to three J. Walter Thompson Research Fellowships. Each Fellow will receive a stipend of $1000 during his or her stay in Durham.
For more information please consult our Website: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/hartman/ or contact Jacqueline Reid, Reference Archivist, John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, [email protected].
46 BOOKS BY ABH MEMBERS
Lewis Johnman and Hugh Murphy, British Shipbuilding and the State Since 1918. A Political Economy of Decline (Exeter University Press)
ISBN 0 85989 607 2 · paperback · £16.99 ; 0 85989 606 4 · hardback · £47.50 Publication April 2002. 320 pages
The decline of the British shipbuilding was a central and striking episode in the decline of Britain’s political and economic power. The book analyses an analysis of a century of decline, with particular emphasis on the relationship between the industry and the state. It is based on the full breadth of primary and secondary sources available, blending the records of central Government with those of the Shipbuilding Employers Federation and Shipbuilding Conference, as well as making use of a range of records from individual yards, technical societies and the trade press.
Authors: Lewis Johnman (University of Westminster) and Hugh Murphy (Senior Caird Research Fellow at the National Maritime Museum).
See Special Discount for ABH members on back page of this Newsletter!][ [email protected] · www.ex.ac.uk/uep
Geoffrey Channon, Railways in Britain and the United States, 1830- 1940 (Ashgate, Studies in Economic and Business History, 2001) pp. 354 ISBN 1 84014 253 7 Hardback. Price: £45.00
Channon examines railways as the first modern big businesses. His interests are in issues of organisation, management and corporate strategy, as well as the men who ran these great enterprises and the workers they employed. The book is concerned with many of the broader issues and perspectives of business history, such as the ‘Chandler thesis’, the debate about ownership, management and control of large enterprises and the rhetoric and reality of corporate culture.
Prof. Geoffrey Channon is Assistant Vice Chancellor, University of the West of England, Bristol.
E-mail: [email protected] www.ashgate.com
47 DISCOUNTS TO ABH MEMBERS
The ABH has negotiated the following discounts on journal subscriptions for members for 2002.
Accounting, Business and Financial History will be offered to members at the discounted rate of £33 or $55. Those members wishing to take up this offer should send their name and address and payment (cheque payable to Taylor & Francis Ltd) to the Secretary of the ABH.
Business History is offered to members at a 20% discount. Members should contact Karen Newlin ([email protected]) or Brenda Quy ([email protected]) in the Cass subscriptions department.
Financial History Review is offered to ABH members at the discounted rate of £17. Applicants should contact Alison Fox ([email protected] at Cambridge University Press.
Oxford University Press offer the following discounts to ABH members:
Enterprise & Society at a 20% discount. (£32 UK, $44 overseas)
Industrial & Corporate Change at a 20% discount (£39 UK; $69 overseas)
NEW BOOK DISCOUNT
British Shipbuilding and the State Since 1918: A Political Economy of Decline by Lewis Johnman and Hugh Murphy is the first book to provide an analysis of twentieth-century shipbuilding at the national level. Based on the full breadth of primary and secondary sources available, it blends the records of central Government with those of the Shipbuilding Employers Federation and Shipbuilding Conference, as well as making use of a range of records from individual yards, technical societies and the trade press. The book is available to members of the ABH direct from the publishers at a special price of £13.50 (retail price £16.99). Please send a cheque payable to ‘Plymbridge Distributors Ltd’, adding £2.00 for each book ordered to cover postage and packing (£3.00 outside UK), to University of Exeter Press, Reed Hall, Streatham Drive, Exeter EX4 4QR, UK.
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