Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Notes on Contributors
- Glossary
- 1 Business History in Latin America: an introduction
- 2 Business History in Argentina
- 3 Business History in Brazil from the mid-nineteenth century to 1945
- 4 Business History in Chile 1850–1945
- 5 Business History in Colombia
- 6 Regional Studies and Business History in Mexico since 1975
- 7 Business History in Peru
- 8 Economic and Business History in Venezuela
- 9 Bibliography
- Index
7 - Business History in Peru
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Notes on Contributors
- Glossary
- 1 Business History in Latin America: an introduction
- 2 Business History in Argentina
- 3 Business History in Brazil from the mid-nineteenth century to 1945
- 4 Business History in Chile 1850–1945
- 5 Business History in Colombia
- 6 Regional Studies and Business History in Mexico since 1975
- 7 Business History in Peru
- 8 Economic and Business History in Venezuela
- 9 Bibliography
- Index
Summary
There are certain parallels between the task faced by a British business historian working on Latin America in the late twentieth century and the British businessman of the mid-nineteenth century who tried to apply the business techniques with which he was familiar in his home economy to a quite different environment. Both run the danger of overestimating the value of their own approach and imposing an alien agenda on a society and economy they only partially understand. It is worth stating at the outset, therefore, that there are many problems with the practice of business history in the United Kingdom. The field was founded on the company history, the classic example of which was Charles Wilson's two-volume history of Unilever. Since 1954, when this was published, there has been a plethora of studies of individual companies in Britain, large and small, central and insignificant. The quality, of course, has been uneven, ranging from superficial and eulogistic narratives produced for a centenary or similar anniversary to sophisticated treatments which locate the company's history within a much broader set of problems and which demonstrate the theoretical and comparative awareness and technical expertise which characterise good historical writing. Nevertheless, the dominance of the company history or case study approach to business history, dictated in part by the constraints of finance and time, has attracted much criticism from leaders in the field in Britain, though it is not without some prominent defenders.
Company history is not the same as business history, although it forms an important component of it. Nor is entrepreneurial history the same as business history, though many of the early studies in business history in Britain took this form. Unfortunately in Latin America the Spanish term historia empresarial, the phrase that is used most often to define the field, bears all three of these English-language meanings. This confusion perhaps symbolises the disjuncture between business history in Latin America and the same subject in North America or Great Britain. Since the time when Wilson was writing, or even the point a decade later when David Joslin was producing one of the first major case studies of foreign business activity in Latin America, the field has advanced enormously in North America, Europe, and Japan.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Business History in Latin AmericaThe Experience of Seven Countries, pp. 128 - 157Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1999