This selection of readings demonstrates the use of both descriptive analysis and quantitative methods in the study of business records. The emphasis, however, is on the role of various quantitative approaches.
Part I contains articles that consider a number of questions about the methods to be used and the aims of business history research. How is the subject to be defined? What types of analysis are most useful in research? In what ways can the findings of any research he used?
Part II provides a number of examples of business history writing that demonstrate the results of a quantitative approach using both Primary and secondary source material. Some of the papers concentrate on the growth and performance of firms from various sectors of the economy. Some consider features of industrial structure. Others concentrate on techniques of marketing, personnel management and the assessment of profitability.
Part III focuses on the techniques of manage meat that have been used to motivate or control the development of business activity. The studies include an analysis of the role of accounting data and other types of information, aids to forecasting, market analysis and the problems of risk and uncertainty in business decision making within various contexts.
The editor has not only provided an introduction to the reprinted articles but he has also included, in Part IV, several special appendices useful for future research in business history. There is a section on allowing for changes in the unit of account. Another appendix deals with the merits and limitations of financial ratio analysis. An extensive bibliography is also provided. This authoritative text was first published in 1977.
Introduction ix
Part One:{emsp}AIMS AND METHODS IN BUSINESS HISTORY
{ensp}1. Arthur H. Cole
What is Business History?
Business History Review, vol. 36 (1962) pp. 98–106, with addendum 3
{ensp}2. F. E. Hyde
Economic theory and Business History
Business History, vol. V (1962) pp.1–10, with addendum 15
{ensp}3. Louis Galambos
Business History and the Theory of the Growth of the Firm
Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, vol. IV (1966), pp. 3–16 29
{ensp}4. K. A Tucker
Business History: Some Proposals for Aims and Mehodology
Business History, vol. XIV (1972), pp. 1–16 43
Part Two:{ensp}ENTREPRENEURS, THE FIRM AND INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE
{ensp}5. P. L. Payne
The Govan Collieries 1804–1805
Business History, vol. 111 (1960), pp. 75–96. 65
{ensp}6. M. Blaug
The Productivity of Capital in the Lancashire Cotton Industry During the Nineteenth Century
Economic History Review, vol. XIII (1960–61), pp. 358–81 91
{ensp}7. S. Pollard
Factory Discipline in the Industrial Revolution
Economic History Review, vol. XVI (1963–64), pp. 254–71 126
{ensp}8. H. W. Richardson and J. M. Bass
The Profitability of Consett Iron Company before 1914
Business History, vol. VII (1965, pp. 71–93 148
{ensp}9. A. E. Musson
James Nasmyth and the Early Growth of Mechanical Engineering
Economic History Review, vol. X (1957–58), pp. 121–27 174
10. H. C. Livesay and P. G. Porter
Vertical Integration in American Manufacturing, 1899–1948
The Journal of Economic History, vol. XXIX (1969), pp. 494–500 184
11. D.F.Dixon
The Growth of Competition among the Standard Oil Companies in the United States, 1911–1961
Business History, vol. IX (1967), pp. 1–29 192
12. F. J. Glover
Government Contracting, Competition and Growth in the Heavy Woollen Industry
Economic History Review, vol. XVI (1963–64), pp. 478–98 225
13. M. Klein and K. Yamamura
The Growth Strategies of Southern Railroads, 1865–1893
Business History Review, vol. XLI (1967), pp. 358–77 250
14. P. G. Porter and H. C. Livesay
The Merchant as Catalyst: Financing Economic Growth
Merchants and Manufacturers: Studies in the Changing Structure of Nineteenth-Century Marketing, The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore and London (1971) 271
15. H. Siegenthaler
What Price Style? The Fabric Advisory Function of the Dry Goods Commission Merchant, 1850–1880
Business History Review, vol. XLI (1967), pp. 36–61 290
Part Three:{emsp}TECHNIQUES OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATION
16. B. S. Yamey
Accounting and The Rise of Capitalism: Further Notes on a Theme by Sombart
Journal of Accounting Research, vol. 2 (1964), pp. 117–36 with addendum 319
17. H. T. Johnson
Early Cost Accounting for Internal Management Control: Lyman Mills in the 1850s Business History Review, vol. XLVI (1972), pp. 466–74 347
18. H. Heaton
An Early Victorian Business Forecaster in The Woollen Industry
Economic History, vol. 2 (1933), pp. 553–74 356
19. B. W. Clapp
A Manchester Merchant and His Schedules of Supply and Demand
Economica, New Series, vol. 29 (1962), pp. 185–87 377
20. A. Cohen
The Social Organisation of Credit in a West African Cattle Market
Africa, vol. XXXV (1965), pp. 8–19 381
Part Four:{ensp}SPECIAL APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Interpreting Accounting Data and Business Records 399
Appendix 2 Allowing for Changes in the Unit of Account 407
Appendix 3 Select Bibliography for Further Reading 410
Author Index 431
General Index 433
Biography
K. A Tucker
