First published in 1976, this much acclaimed book looks at the story of how today's large corporations have superseded the small competing firms of the nineteenth century. The long-run analysis confirms that the crucial periods in the formulation of the modern corporate system were the 1920's and 1960's. The merger wave of these decades was associated with a desire to improve the efficiency of Britain’s industrial organization, and the author shows that it was in a large measure responsible for the trend improvement (by historical if not international standards) in Britain's growth performance.
Students of business, economic history and industrial economics will all welcome the return to print of a notable contribution to the continuing debate on the evolution and control of the corporate manufacturing sector.
1. Business: history and economics
2. The industrial inheritance; the growth of firms to 1914
3. The rationalization movement
4. Government: trustbuster or promoter
5. Capitalist ownership and the stock market
6. Management and the limits to growth
7. The rise of the corporate economy: dimensions
8. The rise of the corporate economy: directions
9. From the 1930's to the 1950's : continuity or change?
10. The modern corporate economy
11. The upshot for welfare
Biography
Hannah, Leslie
