The Rise of the Corporate Economy Published November 3rd 2005 by
Routledge – 264 pages Series: Economic History 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today's large corporations have superseded the small competing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 1