Special Issue: Noblemen Entrepreneurs
This editorial introduces the 10 articles included in the special issue on โNoblemen-entrepreneurs in the Nineteenth Century. Investments, Innovation, Management and Networksโ. The collected works focus on the business activities of noblemen in Europe and Asia, thus offering up opportunities for comparison in an age of economic expansion and globalisation. What was the contribution of the nobility to the economy? Can we consider noblemen to have been endowed with an entrepreneurial spirit? What differences or similarities can we draw between the European and Asian elites? In this introduction, we give a synthetic overview of the relevant issues in the broad topic of the collection and their importance to business history, and briefly present the accepted articles. As two of the articles deal with the Japanese case, while the others focus on Europe, we have dedicated specific sections to the European and Japanese nobilities.
Abe, Takeshi, Izumi Shirai, and Takenobu Yuki. 2022. โSocio-Economic Activities of Former Feudal Lords in Meiji Japan.โ Business History 64 (2): 405โ33. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1828354.
Conca Messina, Silvia A., and Takeshi Abe. 2022. โNoblemen in Business in the Nineteenth Century: The Survival of an Economic Elite?*.โ Business History 64 (2): 207โ25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2021.1972974.
Conca Messina, Silvia A., and Catia Brilli. 2022. โAgriculture and Nobility in Lombardy. Land, Management and Innovation (1815-1861).โ Business History 64 (2): 255โ79. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2019.1648435.
Felisini, Daniela. 2022. โFar from the Passive Property. An Entrepreneurial Landowner in the Nineteenth Century Papal State.โ Business History 64 (2): 226โ38. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2019.1597853.
Giner, Begoรฑa, and Amparo Ruiz. 2022. โFamily Entrepreneurial Orientation as a Driver of Longevity in Family Firms: A Historic Analysis of the Ennobled Trenor Family and Trenor y Cรญa.โ Business History 64 (2): 327โ58. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1801645.
Jensen-Eriksen, Niklas, Saara Hilpinen, and Annette Forsรฉn. 2022. โNordic Noblemen in Business: The Ehrnrooth Family and the Modernisation of the Finnish Economy during the Late 19th Century.โ Business History 64 (2): 385โ404. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1828868.
Mata, Maria Eugenia. 2022. โExemplifying Aristocratic Cross-Border Entrepreneurship before WWI, from a Portuguese Perspective.โ Business History 64 (2): 280โ96. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1727447.
Nakaoka, Shunsuke. 2022. โA Gateway to the Business World? The Analysis of Networks in Connecting the Modern Japanese Nobility to the Business Elite.โ Business History 64 (2): 434โ55. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1828353.
Poettinger, Monika. 2022. โAn Aristocratic Enterprise: The Ginori Porcelain Manufactory (1735โ1896).โ Business History 64 (2): 359โ84. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1801643.
Tedeschi, Paolo. 2022. โThe Noble Entrepreneurs Coming from the Bourgeoisie: Counts Bettoni Cazzago during the Nineteenth Century.โ Business History 64 (2): 239โ54. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2019.1653283.
Tolaini, Roberto. 2022. โThe Genoese Nobility: Land, Finance and Business from Restoration to the First World War.โ Business History 64 (2): 297โ326. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1801644.