Business History Review

Between 1973 and 2002, three of Australia's largest multinational companies exited from postcolonial Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Although neither host government wished the companies to leave, the tensions that arose during the course of decolonization made their departure inevitable. Prior to independence, conflicts between Fijians and Indians and decisions about grants of land and mineral rights to foreign firms had been mediated by colonial administrators. After independence, these contentious issues were resolved through domestic political processes. Ultimately, the companies were unable to overcome the limitations of their shared administrative heritage, based on nationalistic chauvinism, that desensitized them to the importance of race relations and communal rights to land within their host countries.

This study traces the origins of the twentieth-century Greek shipping tycoons and their global business to the nineteenth-century Greek diaspora traders. It examines the distinct characteristics of a diaspora firm, which can be treated partially as a multinational or "free standing firm" with distinctive features. Based in the main European financial centers, diaspora traders were international operators who developed ethnic-religious networks with their own unofficial international market, enabling them to operate independently of the countries or states in which they were established. The Vagliano house is a prime example of a diaspora trading house that transformed itself into a major shipping and ship-management firm, paving the way for the global success of twentieth-century Greek-owned shipping.

The Vagliano network integrated the Greek shipping sector into the international shipping production system by creating an institutional framework based on trust that minimized transaction costs and entrepreneurial risk and provided information flow.

This article examines how the human-relations managerial techniques of the 1950s prepared large companies for racial integration in the years before the formation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1964. Drawing from management's "how-to" publications, as well as archival materials from the Lukens Steel Company and the Du Pont Corporation, the article expands on recent work that has emphasized the importance of internal labor markets, training programs, and managerial policies in determining the shape and pace of integration.

This paper builds on recent conceptual work about associations that is drawn from the new institutional economics. It uses evidence from New Zealand wool broking to indicate the circumstances in which industry associations can operate effectively and in the broader public interest. Through their strong associative capacity and effective specialization of function, wool-broking industry associations developed flexible routines for managing wool auctions, mediated disputes, mitigated opportunism, addressed major market disruptions, and served as a communication channel with government. External pressures and monitoring from other business interests, governments, and a competitive wool market constrained rent-seeking behavior, preventing members from benefiting at the expense of others.

Storia della Pininfarina, 1930–2005: Un’industria italiana nel mondo [A History of Pininfarina, 1930–2005: A Global Italian Industry]. Edited by Valerio Castronovo.Reviewed by Andrea E. Goldstein.

Building on Water: Venice, Holland and the Construction of the European Landscape in Early Modern Times. By Salvatore Ciriacono. Reviewed by Mark Cioc.

House of Plenty: The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Luby’s Cafeterias. By Carol Dawson and Carol Johnston. Reviewed by Peter M. Birkeland.

Les entreprises du secteur de l’énergie sous l’Occupation [The Energy Sector during the Occupation]. Edited by Varaschin Denis. Reviewed by Kim Oosterlinck.

Horses in Society: A Story of Animal Breeding and Marketing Culture, 1800–1920. By Margaret E. Derry. Reviewed by Warren M. Elofson.

Myths of Modernity: Peonage and Patriarchy in Nicaragua. By Elizabeth Dore. Reviewed by Ralph Lee Woodward Jr.

Global Imbalances and the Lessons of Bretton Woods: The Cairoli Lectures. By Barry Eichengreen. Reviewed by Rawi Abdelal.

Waves of Opposition: Labor and the Struggle for Democratic Radio. By Elizabeth Fones-Wolf. Reviewed by Douglas Craig.

The Taylorized Beauty of the Mechanical: Scientific Management and the Rise of Modernist Architecture. By Mauro F. Guillén. Reviewed by Per Hansen.

Commerce and Capitalism in Chinese Societies. By Gary G. Hamilton. Reviewed by Parks Coble.

Depression, War, and Cold War: Studies in Political Economy. By Robert Higgs. Reviewed by Elliot A. Rosen.

Brides, Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition. By Vicki Howard. Reviewed by Katherine Jellison.

The Embedded Corporation: Corporate Governance and Employment Relations in Japan and the United States. By Sanford M. Jacoby. Reviewed by Takeo Hoshi.

Unbegrenzte Möglichkeiten: “Amerikanisierung” in Deutschland und Frankreich (1900–1933) [Infinite Possibilities: “Americanization” in Germany and France (1900–1933)]. By Egbert Klautke. Reviewed by Jeffrey Fear.

The Rise of the Amsterdam Market and Information Exchange: Merchants, Commercial Expansion and Change in the Spatial Economy of the Low Countries, c.1550–1630. By Clé Lesger. Reviewed by Hugo van Driel.

Oil Titans: National Oil Companies in the Middle East. By Valerie Marcel, with John V. Mitchell.Reviewed by Relli Shechter.

Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890–1945. By Charles McGovern. Reviewed by Kimberly Phillips-Fein.

Lever of Empire: The International Gold Standard and the Crisis of Liberalism in Prewar Japan. By Mark Metzler. Reviewed by Robert G. Kane.

L.A. Story: Immigrant Workers and the Future of the Labor Movement. By Ruth Milkman. Reviewed by Josh Sides.

Itinéraires marchands du goût moderne: Produits alimentaires et modernisation rurale en France et en Allemagne (1870–1940)[Merchant Routes to Modern Taste: Food Products and Rural Modernization in France and Germany (1870–1940)]. By Thierry Nadau. Reviewed by Kolleen M. Guy.

The Challenge of Affluence: Self Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950. By Avner Offer. Reviewed by Charles Kenny.

The Sausage Rebellion: Public Health, Private Enterprise, and Meat in Mexico City, 1890–1917. By Jeffrey M. Pilcher. Reviewed by William Schell Jr.

Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons. By Edward J. Renehan Jr. Reviewed by Maury Klein.

The Freedom to Smoke: Tobacco Consumption and Identity. By Jarrett Rudy. Reviewed by Barbara Hahn.

The Emergence of Modern Business Enterprise in France, 1800–1930. By Michael Stephen Smith. Reviewed by Ludovic Cailluet.

Industrializing American Shipbuilding: The Transformation of Ship Design and Construction, 1820–1920. By William H. Thiesen. Reviewed by Thomas A. Kinney.

The Social Life of Money in the English Past. By Deborah Valenze. Reviewed by Woodruff D. Smith.

Financial Founding Fathers: The Men Who Made America Rich. By Robert E. Wright and David J. Cowen. Reviewed by Andrew Shankman.

Korea Under Siege, 1876–1945: Capital Formation and Economic Transformation. By Chung Young-Iob. Reviewed by Dennis McNamara.

Il “discorso del maneggio”: Pratiche gestionali e contabili all’Arsenale di Venezia, 1580–1643 [The “Discourse on Management”: Accounting and Managerial Practices at Venice’s State Shipyard, 1580–1643]. By Luca Zan, Franco Rossi, and Stefano Zambon, Reviewed by PierAngelo Toninelli.