A Comparative History of Commerce and Industry ─ Four Paths to an Industrialized World

With an ever-changing business landscape, researchers and analysts look to historical trends to better predict the future of modern business. A Comparative History of Commerce and Industry, Volume I offers a subjective review of how the cultural, social and economic institutions of commerce and industry evolved in the four industrialized nations of Great Britain, Germany, Japan and the United States to produce the institution we now know as the business enterprise.

This ambitious book offers a multidisciplinary view of the birth and evolution of commerce in these four nations, from the Kamakura Shogunate in 12th century Japan up until Europe's global leadership in the 1920s. It offers insight on the events that have shaped—and continue to shape—national character and provides academics, researchers and students with an overview of commerce and industry that will further their understanding of the future of business and its implications.

David E. McNabb is Professor Emeritus at Pacific Lutheran University, USA. He is the sole author of seven books, including two comprehensive research methods texts, and joint author of two others. The first edition of his Research Methods in Public Administration and Nonprofit Organizations was awarded the 2004 John Grenzebach Research Award for Research in Philanthropy. He continues to teach at colleges and universities in the United States and internationally.