The film business in the United States and Britain during the 1930s1

The film business in the United States and Britain during the 1930s. Film was a most important product in the lives of the people during the 1930s. This article sets out to analyse the underlying economic arrangements of the film industries of the United States and Britain during the decade for producing and diffusing this commodity type to the population at large. It finds a highly competitive industry that was built around showing films that audiences wanted to see, irrespective of the extent of vertical integration. It also examines the nature of the relationship between the two industries and finds an asymmetry between the popularity of British films in the American market and that of American films in the British market. The explanation offered is that the efforts of British firms in the American market were not sufficiently sustained to make a significant impact on American audiences.     

Patents and invention in Jamaica and the British Atlantic before 1857 †

Before 1852 the English patent system operated at both a domestic and a global level, allowing inventors to extend its operation beyond England to the colonies, where it interacted in territories such as Jamaica with a colonial system of patents and grants. It therefore provides one of the few examples of a workable global patent system, and an important case study of the structures that supported the development and circulation of technology within the British Atlantic during the early stages of the industrial revolution. Providing a framework of ‘tiered’ rather than ‘parallel’ powers and jurisdictions, the imperial patent system was a flexible instrument that inventors could use strategically to promote transnational technological innovation, in which people, ideas, and skills moved back and forth between Britain and colonies such as Jamaica. Patenting, which was concentrated in wealthy plantation colonies that sought greater productivity, was therefore a key part of the economic development of empire.     

Trade, empire, and the fiscal context of imperial business during decolonization

Recent studies have shown convincingly that no 'neocolonialist' conspiracies were hatched to perpetuate British commercial dominance in the former colonies after independence, and that relations between individual firms and policy-makers were frequently troubled. In acknowledging the force of this general proposition, however, there is a risk of neglecting the still significant place of commercial considerations in state policy making. By relocating the relationship of trade and empire in the 1950s in an examination of a hitherto neglected dimension of British taxation policy, this article demonstrates that the Conservative government sought to assist British business with colonial interests at a time when these firms faced new uncertainties.     

Book Review

Books reviewed: S.H. Rigby, Towns in decline, AD 100‐1600 R.H Britnell, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the sixth year of the reign of King Henry III, Michaelmas 1222 Nuala Zahedieh, Socialbility and power in late‐Stuart England: the cultural worlds of the Verneys, 1660‐1720 John C. Appleby, St Peter Port, 1680‐1830: the history of an international entrepôt Jordan Goodman, Liquid pleasures: a social history of drinks in modern Britain Kristine Bruland, Industrial espionage and technology transfer: Britain and France in the eighteenth century J.R. Wordie, Roots of change: farming and the landscape in East Anglia, c 1700‐1870 James A. Jaffe, Early trade unionism: fraternity, skill and the politics of labour Pat Hudson, The British industrial revolution: an economic perspective Callum G. Brown, Congregational missions and the making of an imperial culture in nineteenth‐century England Felix Driver, The Oxford history of the British empire, III: the nineteenth century Colin G. Pooley, The Irish in Victorian Britain: the local dimension M.W Kirby, Raleigh and the British bicycle industry: an economic and business history, 1870‐1960 G.C. Peden, The management of the national debt of the United Kingdom, 1900‐1932 Alan Booth, The Treasury and British public policy, 1906‐1959 Richard C. Thurlow, Whitehall and the Jews, 1933‐1948: British immigration policy and the Holocaust Jim Tomlinson, Rethinking British decline Richard Perren, Region and strategy in Britain and Japan: business in Lancashire and Kansai, 1890‐1900 B.W.E. Alford, In the public interest: competition policy and the Monopolies and Mergers Commission David Armitage, The Oxford history of the British empire, V: historiography Paul Warde, Defiled trades and social outcasts: honour and ritual pollution in early modern Germany Martin Chick, Histoire de l’électricité en Suisse: la dynamique d’un petit pays européen, 1875‐1939 Glassmaking in Renaissance Venice: the fragile craftFrancesca Trivellato Joseph Harrison, Empresa, mercados, mina y mineros: Rio Tinto, 1873‐1936 Joseph Harrison, The Mediterranean response to globalization before 1950 Roger Middleton, The development of economics in western Europe since 1945 Roger Bartlett, The Russian peasantry, 1600‐1930: the world the peasants made Christopher Clay, The Ottoman city between east and west: Aleppo, Izmir, and Istanbul Virginia H. Aksan, Consumption studies and the history of the Ottoman empire, 1550‐1922: an introduction H.A. Gemery, Migration and the origins of the English Atlantic world S.D Smith, The British Isles and the War of American Independence Robert G. Greenhill, Business history in Latin America: the experience of seven countries Penelope Francks, The pursuit of power in modern Japan, 1825‐1995 Katrina Honeyman, Working out gender: perspectives from labour history Ranald Michie, The global debt bomb Roger Middleton, Reconstructing poliltical economy: the great divide in economic thought     

Investor behaviour in a nascent capital market: Scottish bank shareholders in the nineteenth century

This article uses the records of nineteenth‐century Scottish banks in an attempt to understand investor behaviour in the early British capital market. It presents four main findings, some of which do not conform to the basic assumptions of standard asset pricing theories. First, in an era when efficient portfolio diversification was not possible, the intrinsic risk of an equity security was an important input into investor decision‐making. Second, our evidence suggests that businesspeople initially regarded bank stock as a consumption good, as being a stockholder gave them privileged access to bank finance. When bank lending practices changed in the middle of the century, this access‐to‐credit advantage associated with owning bank stock largely disappeared. Third, investors typically exhibited a bias towards banks that conducted business in the areas where they resided. Fourth, a sizeable proportion of investors were stockholders in more than one bank.     

Salesmen and the transformation of selling in Britain and the US in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries1

Was a ‘transformation of selling’ in the US between the 1880s and 1930 exceptional? Archives of three leading British consumer goods companies reveal that a comparable transformation in selling methods was effected through the changing role for salesmen. Unlike the explanation offered for the transformation in the US, developments in Britain cannot be explained by a structural model in which the dynamics are mass production, size, corporate structure, and strategy. Consumer theory based on product characteristics and consumer behaviour provides a superior explanation. The history of marketing by the British companies also justifies a challenge to the production‐driven interpretation of business development and corporate growth.     

The role of the Spanish imperial state in the mining‐led growth of Bourbon Mexico's economy1

Colonial Mexico's economy experienced a long phase of growth during the eighteenth century. Around 1800, silver exports and fiscal surplus remittances from the colony rose to unprecedented levels. We study the contribution of the Spanish imperial state's policy to the expansion of silver production and the leading role of mining in economic growth and its fiscal implications. We find evidence to support a more favourable view of both the mining sector and the imperial state than that commonly presented in the literature. The interruption of colonial ‘mining‐led growth’ helps to explain the ‘lost decades’ for the economic development of Mexico after independence.     

The Current State of Business History in Latin America

Business history in Latin America has seen significant growth in the past 25 years, most notably since the beginning of this century. Although the sub‐discipline benefitted from seminal studies by British and U.S. scholars, most works of note are currently produced by local scholars. Latin American business history holds great comparative potential for business historians in other parts of the world undertaking studies in the areas of emerging economies, business‐state relationships, the role of entrepreneurship, business groups, entrepreneurial families, and foreign investment and imperialism.     

Sterling's farewell symphony: The end of the Sterling Area revisited

When and why did Sterling Area countries stop holding sterling as the majority of their foreign exchange reserves? This paper takes a comparative approach to examine the relative importance of various determinants of adherence to sterling in its declining years as an international currency. Using an original cross-national panel dataset covering the period 1965–79, we conduct survival analysis which systematically evaluates a comprehensive set of economic and political factors, at the country level as well as in international relations, about when and why countries chose to diversify their reserves away from sterling. Our results highlight the significance of international transactional factors in influencing adherence to sterling, while the effects of British geopolitical retrenchment, Commonwealth cultural ties, and distributional issues were more ambiguous and sensitive to local conditions. We also find that domestic political and historical factors, such as democracy and imperial legacy, played a role in sterling's international unravelling. Finally, we use our results to examine the experience of individual sterling countries and their decisions to diversify.     

作业成本管理如何促进企业风险管理

随着英国巴林银行和美国安然公司等相继暴露出严重的财务丑闻,我国的中行、建行等国有银行多次发生重大的贷款舞弊案件以及新加坡中航油破产,现代企业风险管理成为国内外关注的一个焦点问题。本文重点阐述作业成本管理如何通过优化决策信息质量和作业管理从静态和动态上促进企业风险管理。     

Leyland Daf: A case of negative European integration

In February 1987 Daf, the privately owned Dutch truck maker, bought the British state-owned Leyland trucks and vans business. Almost five years to the day later, Leyland Daf went into liquidation. This report examines what went wrong and tells the story behind the 1987 deal. It will argue that the UK Government sold Leyland trucks to a parent company which had little to offer. This conclusion raises the crucial issues of how the British Government and the EC got us into this position and why both have done little to solve the regional problems they created.     

The Western Australian Convicts

British convicts transported to Western Australia between 1850 and 1868 were not as positively selected regarding their human capital as early historical accounts suggest. The heights of the convicts were not statistically different from those of British prisoners who were not transported. While few were skilled, the proportion of construction workers was higher than expected, consistent with selection for the needs of the colonial government's works on infrastructure. Data on inmates of Fremantle Prison allow validation of height measurements and occupational statements in the convict list. Australian-born prisoners were taller than those who came from Britain as free immigrants.     

Dutch and Danish agricultural exports during the First World War

Abstract

The Danish agricultural sector continued to maintain agricultural exports to Great Britain during the First World War, even when higher prices ruled on the German market. Dutch agricultural exporters, 011 the other hand. continued to sell to the highest bidder; until, in 1916, British pressure forced them to do otherwise. It was not the Danish government but the Danish cooperatives who were responsible for Danish agricultural export policy, especially in the first years of the war. More than was the case with the Dutch exporters, the Danes were highly dependent on the British market. The strong Danish cooperatives (in contrast to the weaker Dutch agricultural organizations) forced the Danish government to support their strategy in order not to lose their suppliers to the newly establishedfirms who were exporting to Germany.     

Marriage strategy among the European nobility

We use a unique dataset to analyze the marriage patterns of the British and German nobility from the 1500s to the 1800s, and discuss the differences in institutions between the two countries. Historical evidence shows that: nobles tended to marry nobles with identical title; and, German marriages were characterized by a higher degree of homogamy in titles than British marriages. Moreover, we show that German data exhibit lower odds of marriage than British among nobles and commoners, and hence provide evidence of a more stratified society. Finally, we propose a diff-in-diff exercise to test the correlation between highly restrictive marriage laws and marital sorting in Germany.     

Gentlemanly capitalism in New Zealand

This article responds to McAloon's contribution to this journal criticising the argument advanced by P.J. Cain and myself in British Imperialism . McAloon's research on Canterbury and Otago merits serious attention, but it is argued here that he is mistaken in claiming that it disproves the case we made for applying our concept of gentlemanly capitalism to New Zealand. Both the structure of 'settler capitalism' and the social characteristics of the settlers themselves provide a good fit with our interpretation. Nevertheless, McAloon deserves credit for putting this subject on the agenda, and it is to be hoped that other historians of New Zealand (and also of Australia) will now reconsider the relationship between the 'rules of the game' established by the imperial centre and the degrees of dependence experienced by the constituent parts of the empire.     

Australian squatters,convicts, and capitalists: dividing up a fast‐growing frontier pie, 1821–71

Compared with its competitors, Australian GDP per worker grew exceptionally quickly from the 1820s to the 1870s, at a rate about twice that of the US and three times that of Britain. Did this rapid growth produce rising inequality, following a Kuznets curve? Using a novel dataset, this article offers new evidence that provides unambiguous support for the view that, in sharp contrast with the US experience and with globalization‐inequality views concerning late nineteenth‐century frontiers, Australia underwent a revolutionary levelling in incomes up to the 1870s. This assessment is based on trends in many proxies for inequality, as well as annual estimates of functional income shares in the form of land rents, convict payments, free unskilled labour incomes, free skilled labour and white collar incomes, British imperial transfers, and a capitalist residual.     

The British Navy Rules: Monitoring and Incompatible Incentives in the Age of Fighting Sail

The British Navy during the age of sail was systematically successful against its opponents, most notably the French. This paper documents this success, shows that it cannot be explained by superior ships, training, or other naval capital, and puts forth the hypothesis that the British Navy governance structure provided better incentives to fight than those of their opponents. The hypothesis is tested by examining the structure of the rules and then contrasting them with the rules governing privateers, the army, and the navy over time. The paper concludes with a discussion of why the French did not copy the British strategy.     

India’s contribution to the British balance of payments, 1757-1812

The East India Company’s “regulated” trade monopoly more effectively served Britain’s national interest during the French wars than might be inferred from contemporary complaints and recent scholarship. The Board of Control’s assessment of India’s importance to the British balance of payments in the 1780s was well informed and was borne out by subsequent developments. British net inflows from India remained substantial through 1765-1812 and were arguably least dispensable. British trade with Asia most frequently outgrew the worldwide totals and retained some of the acquired gains to the end of the period. The real constraints faced by private traders should be weighed against the external economies and scale advantages rendered by the East India Company to a wider range of British interests.