Special Issue: Noblemen Entrepreneurs
This editorial introduces the 10 articles included in the special issue on βNoblemen-entrepreneurs in the Nineteenth Century. Investments, Innovation, Management and Networksβ. 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. βSocio-Economic Activities of Former Feudal Lords in Meiji Japan.β Business History 64 (2): 405β33. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1828354.
Conca Messina, Silvia A., and Takeshi Abe. 2022. βNoblemen in Business in the Nineteenth Century: The Survival of an Economic Elite?*.β Business History 64 (2): 207β25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2021.1972974.
Conca Messina, Silvia A., and Catia Brilli. 2022. βAgriculture and Nobility in Lombardy. Land, Management and Innovation (1815-1861).β Business History 64 (2): 255β79. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2019.1648435.
Felisini, Daniela. 2022. βFar from the Passive Property. An Entrepreneurial Landowner in the Nineteenth Century Papal State.β Business History 64 (2): 226β38. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2019.1597853.
Giner, BegoΓ±a, and Amparo Ruiz. 2022. βFamily Entrepreneurial Orientation as a Driver of Longevity in Family Firms: A Historic Analysis of the Ennobled Trenor Family and Trenor y CΓa.β Business History 64 (2): 327β58. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1801645.
Jensen-Eriksen, Niklas, Saara Hilpinen, and Annette ForsΓ©n. 2022. βNordic Noblemen in Business: The Ehrnrooth Family and the Modernisation of the Finnish Economy during the Late 19th Century.β Business History 64 (2): 385β404. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1828868.
Mata, Maria Eugenia. 2022. βExemplifying Aristocratic Cross-Border Entrepreneurship before WWI, from a Portuguese Perspective.β Business History 64 (2): 280β96. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1727447.
Nakaoka, Shunsuke. 2022. βA Gateway to the Business World? The Analysis of Networks in Connecting the Modern Japanese Nobility to the Business Elite.β Business History 64 (2): 434β55. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1828353.
Poettinger, Monika. 2022. βAn Aristocratic Enterprise: The Ginori Porcelain Manufactory (1735β1896).β Business History 64 (2): 359β84. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1801643.
Tedeschi, Paolo. 2022. βThe Noble Entrepreneurs Coming from the Bourgeoisie: Counts Bettoni Cazzago during the Nineteenth Century.β Business History 64 (2): 239β54. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2019.1653283.
Tolaini, Roberto. 2022. βThe Genoese Nobility: Land, Finance and Business from Restoration to the First World War.β Business History 64 (2): 297β326. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1801644.