Recent work on business organisation has shown how a network based upon trade can evolve into a more widely embracing trade and financial network. A growing network may also engender leaders who intermediate to reduce communication costs. This paper provides an historically based variation on...

This essay explores the development of large scale enterprise in Australia, an economy in which resource industries were unusually important and with a very small domestic market. Using asset size as a yardstick, the authors construct a series of the 100 largest firms operating in the years...

Relocation of the selling of Australia's wool clip from London to cities in Australia in the late nineteenth century led to the creation of wool selling industry associations, such as the Melbourne Woolbrokers Association (MWA). Highly successful in fostering competitive collaboration that...