An examination of the manuscript censuses of manufacturing in 1850 and 1860 indicates the forthcoming revision of many traditional interpretations of American industrial development. This study suggests that large-scale manufacturing in the South and West was quite similar in the decade before the Civil War and that antebellum manufacturing was sufficiently concentrated to imply that the model of perfect competition is as inappropriate a description of mid-nineteenth century industrial structure as it is of twentieth century industry.

This study analyzes the changing role of pre-industrial family and bureaucratic traditions in the development of Germany's leading electrical manufacturing firm. The Siemens company developed a decentralized, multi-divisional structure ten to twenty years before duPont and General Motors pioneered a similar organization in the United States. The pre-industrial bureaucratic traditions, considered in a multi-national context, facilitated the development of efficient modern management in Germany and help explain the relative success of German industry in the two decades before World War I.

Professor Livesay describes the prevailing marketing patterns in the various branches of the iron manufacturing industry in the United States before the Civil War. Iron products, like most antebellum manufactured goods, were distributed by independent merchants who played a dominant role in many aspects of economic life. The coming of integrated rail mills, however, foreshadowed the merchants' eventual decline later in the nineteenth century.

The House of Brown was a major international banking firm during the nineteenth century. The leading banking houses such as Baring Brothers and the Browns facilitated the flow of goods throughout the world by providing a range of services vital to international commerce. Mr. Perkins examines the manner in which the firm did business in a large American port on the eve of the Civil War.

Edward L. Bernays was a pioneer in the development of public relations in modern America. For more than half a century he has advised a wide range of institutions, including government, corporations, trade associations, and many private organizations. In this memoir he gives his views of the proper role, methods, and principles of public relations and recalls some of his early experiences with businessmen and other clients.

Professor Blomquist describes and analyzes various forms of business association in an important northern Italian city during the period of economic growth in the thirteenth century. These included two basic forms of partnerships, as well as an early version of limited liability association.

Professor Arnould analyzes the reasons for concentration in the American meat packing industry from 1880 through 1920, then describes and evaluates the varied forces which have led to declining concentration since the end of World War I.

Despite the efforts of American government officials, attempts to establish a joint Chinese-American company to develop China's petroleum potential met with failure during the initial years of the Wilson administration. Duplicity and misunderstanding on the part of Standard Oil and of the Chinese government added another chapter to the dismal history of American business in China.

Hardware wholesalers organized trade associations in the late nineteenth century in an effort to achieve stability and uniformity in prices and profit margins. These organizations, like those of manufacturers in the same industry, met with some success.

Professor Muchmore analyzes and edits an interesting Elizabethan document typical of a large body of economic literature in Tudor-Stuart England.

Professor Neal assesses the innovative role of a key financial institution — the trust company — during the period of American economic growth after the depression of the 1890's and prior to World War I.

An examination of interlocking directorates in major American businesses since 1896 indicates that the incidence of interlocking has declined considerably in this century.

Estimates of costs and revenues for steamboating in the Louisville-New Orleans trade indicate that after the 1820's the steamboat transport market experienced the long–run equilibrium characteristic of purely competitive industries.

Mr. Jeremy traces since the Middle Ages the interaction of technology and business organization in shaping the measuring systems for yarn in the British and later the American textile industries. Despite the attendant confusion and difficulties, a remarkable motley of such systems arose and has persisted.

Professor Cohen recounts the operations of the famed auction system in New York, suggesting reasons for its success in the years after the War of 1812 and its decline in the decade of the 1830's.

Professor Whitten estimates capitalization, production and returns, and profits for a Louisiana sugar plantation owned and operated by Andrew Durnford, a black planter.

In the decade prior to the Civil War, southern manufacturing was surprisingly similar to that of the non-South. In the latter portion of the nineteenth century, however, a wide divergence developed between that region and the rest of the nation.