Llicenciatura en Administració i Direcció d'Empreses (3323)
Llicenciatura en Economia (3322)

Història de l’Empresa(12784) 

I. THEORY AND HISTORY

Tema 1

Introduction: The course and its requirements. What is business history, and does it matter?

Tema 2

Definitions: The firm, its boundaries and development.

Tema 3

Definitions: The entrepreneur. 

II. BEFORE THE FACTORY

Tema 4

Pre-industrial economic organizations. 

Tema 5

Focus: the proto-industrialization. 

III. THE FIRST INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Tema 6

The rise of the factory: theoretical and historical explanations. 

Tema 7

Which organisational form for the new building block? 

Tema 8

Focus: the dark satanic mills.

Tema 9

A peaceful conquest: patterns of diffusion and national experiences. 

IV. THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: THE US EXPERIENCE

Tema 10

What is big business? The rise of the Big Business in the US. 

Tema 11

Focus 2: Financing the American Dream. 

Tema 12

The Age of Corporate Triumph. 

Tema 13

Focus 1: Ford, Sloan and the Car Wars.

Tema 14

The New Financial Capitalists. 

V. THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: PATTERNS OF DIFFUSION

Tema 15

The follower. German capitalism. 

Tema 16

Declining leadership. British capitalism. 

Tema 17

The virtuous challenger. Japan. 

Tema 18

Globalizing business: multinationals in historical perspective. 

Tema 19

The Rise of the Rest. 

CONCLUSION

Tema 20

Twenty-First Century Firms. A Vanishing Hand? 

Bibliografia

There is no single textbook for the course. The best overview in Spanish is:
VALDALISO, Jesús M.; LÓPEZ, Santiago. Historia económica de la empresa. Barcelona: Crítica, 2000.
In English, a recent contribution focussing on the history of the joint-stock company is:
MICKLETHWAIT, John; WOOLDRIDGE, Adrian. The Company. A short history of a revolutionary idea. Nova York: The Modern Library, 2003.
The most comprehensive volumes in a comparative perspective are however:
BLACKFORD, Mansel G. The Rise of Modern Business in Great Britain, the United States, and Japan. 2a. ed. rev. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
CHANDLER Jr., Alfred i d’altres (ed.). Big Business and the Wealth of Nations. Nova York, 1997.
McCRAW, Tom (ed.). Creating Modern Capitalism. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997.