ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS HISTORY

In accordance with the learning objectives of the Bachelor's degree program in Business Administration and Management, this course provides an overview of key economic and organizational changes over the long term. The course aims to develop students’ ability to critically analyze, comment on, and debate the main historical business and economic processes, identifying the main actors involved and the main historical turnarounds (globalization, the Great Convergence and Great Divergence, and industrial and technological revolutions).
This course is designed for second-year undergraduate students who do not have prior knowledge of business and economic history. However, they must have passed the microeconomics exam.
During week one, students will become acquainted with the main features of the economic history of preindustrial societies and the typical business organizations of the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Week two will focus on the origins and development of the first industrial revolution, and the rise of the modern entrepreneur and factory system. Week three's lessons will focus on technological change, the second industrial revolution, and the origins of large corporations during the first globalization. Week 4 focuses on the collapse of the first globalization, the Great Depression, and the golden age of economic growth and their impact on the market and business organizations of capitalist and socialist economies. During week five, students will discuss the neoliberal turn, globalization in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the third and fourth technological revolutions, and global capitalism.

Course Objectives
1. Students distinguish, compare and appraise different theoretical approaches to the study of economic and business facts in the past;
2. Students recognize and describe the key economic, industrial and organizational changes from early-modern to contemporary times;
3. Students explain historical economic dynamics as the result of the interplay of multiple variables (market, firms, institutions);
4. Students comprehend the role of institutions as the rules of the game for economic life, and the transformations of the firm structure;
5. Students comment and debate case studies, are able to place them in their historical context, critically discuss sources and methodologies.

The course is designed for second year undergraduate students, who do not have previous knowledge of economic and business history. Microeconomics as necessary requirement to take the exam.

Week 1:
1. Introduction to the course and rules of the game
2. The Firm in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period (4.2)
a. Workshops, Guilds, and Boats
3. The Road to the First Industrial Revolution
a. Proto-industrialization, Markets, Firms, and Workers
Reading: Amatori and Colli (pp. 31–39); and Amatori and Colli, eds. (pp. 1–45).
WEEK 2:
4. The Industrial Revolution and the Industrial Revolution
a. The Entrepreneur of the First Industrial Revolution
b. The factory as an organizational revolution.
5. The Great Divergence during the First Industrial Revolution
a. The Great Divergence: Why the West Grew Rich
b. Diffusion of the First Industrial Revolution.
6. Presentation: Josiah Wedgwood and the First Industrial Revolution or August Thyssen and German Steel
Reading: Allen (1–40); Amatori-Colli (40–58); and Chandler (70–85).
WEEK 3
7. The Rise of the Modern Large Corporation
a. The Railways and the Rise of the Modern Corporation
b. U.S. Ascendancy
8. First Globalization, British Decline, and the Second Industrial Revolution
a. First globalization, the British Empire, and freestanding companies.
b. Germany and the Second Industrial Revolution. A Schumpeterian world
9. Presentation: "Rolls-Royce and the Rise of the High-Technology Industry" or "Henry Ford, Alfred Sloan, and the Three Phases of Marketing."
Reading: Allen (40–113); Amatori–Colli (59–98); and Chandler (85–120).
WEEK 4
10. The American Century and Big Firms
a. Multidivisionalization
b. Multinationalization
11. Catching-up Century
a. The Soviet Solution: Large Firms Without Markets
b. The East Asian solution: the state promoting exports and business groups.
12. Presentation: Toyota Automatic Looms and Toyota Automobiles, or 7-Eleven in America and Japan.
Reading: Allen (114–147); Amatori and Colli (123–147, 161–182); and Chandler (120–133).
WEEK 5:
13. Second Globalization and the Third and Fourth Technological Revolutions
a. The Neoliberal Turn and the Third Technological Revolution
b. The Triumph of Free Trade, the Second Globalization, and China’s Miracle
14. The Dollar, the Euro, and Financial Capitalism
a. The Fourth Technological Revolution: Platforms and Consumer Worlds
b. The U.S. dollar, the euro, bitcoins, and financial instability
15. Presentation: IBM and the Two Thomas J. Watsons
or
The Deutsche Bank
Reading: Amatori and Colli, eds., 317–331.
16. EXAM PREPARATION

TEXTBOOK
Robert C.Allen, Global Economic History. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2011
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Selected chapters or extra support from:
Amatori, Franco & Andrea Colli, Business History. Complexities and Comparisons, London, Routledge, 2011.
Amatori, Franco & Andrea Colli, eds., The Global Economy. A concise history, London, Routledge, 2019 and Torino, Giappichelli, 2017.
Chandler, Jr., Alfred D., “The United States: The Evolution of Enterprise”, in Peter Mathias and M.M.Postan, eds., The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. VII, The Industrial Economies: Capital, Labour and Enterprise. Part 2, The United States, Japan, and Russia, Cambridge University Press, 1978, pp. 70-123.
Colli, Andrea, Dynamics of International Business. Comparative Perspectives of Firms, Markets and Entrepreneurship, Routledge, 2016.
Jones, Geoffrey, Multinationals and Global Capitalism. From the Nineteenth Century to the Twenty-First Century, Oxford University Press, 2004.
McCraw, Thomas, Creating Modern Capitalism, Harvard University Press, 1997.
Neal, Larry and Jeffrey Williamson, eds., The Cambridge History of Capitalism, Vol. II, The Spread of Capitalism: From 1848 to the Present, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Jesús Valdaliso & Santiago López, Historia económica de la empresa, Crítica, Barcelona, 2007.

With the exception of Allen’s volume, all used materials will be available through Moodle –articles, chapters and other materials.

All presentation readings come from Thomas McCraw book.

Assessment:
The course will consist of frontal lectures and guided class discussions. Online and in-class exercises and group activities will be organized and graded.
1. Oral and Written Presentations: Each Wednesday, groups of up to four students will present one of the texts containing case studies. These texts are available on Moodle.
Students must prepare a 20-minute presentation with accompanying slides that identifies the following:
a. What makes the case study interesting and relevant
b. The main disciplinary or theoretical frame adopted by the author
c. The research hypothesis
d. The methodology or methodologies used
e. The results
Grade: 1, 2, or 3 extra points.
2. Final Exam: A written exam covering all readings and the slides prepared by the professor for each class. The exam will consist of a few true and false questoins with explanation and one short open-end question.

written

Regarding grade grading (mode by which grades will be assigned), regardless of attending or non-attending mode:
A. scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- sufficient knowledge and applied comprehension skills with reference to the syllabus;
- limited ability to collect and/or interpret data, making independent judgments;
- sufficient communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language pertaining to the history of economics and technology;
B. scores in the 23-26 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- fair knowledge and applied comprehension skills with reference to the syllabus;
- discrete ability to collect and/or interpret data, making independent judgments;
- fair communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language pertaining to the history of economics and technology;
C. scores in the 27-30 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- good or excellent knowledge and applied comprehension skills with reference to the syllabus;
- good or excellent ability to collect and/or interpret data, making independent judgments;
- fully appropriate communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language pertaining to the history of economics and technology.
D. honors will be awarded in the presence of knowledge and applied understanding with reference to the syllabus; excellent judgment and communication skills.

The course will be based on Frontal Lectures and guided class discussions; online and in class exercises and group activities will be organized and graded.
Materials will be available through Moodle with the exception of R. C. Allen, Global Economic History. A very Short Introduction, OUP, 2011

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development