Preindustrial businesses: the time of the merchant -- The many paths to industrialization -- British and German businesses during industrialization -- Big and small businesses in industrializing America -- Japanese and Chinese businesses during industrialization -- American, British, and German...

The book attempts to give a comprehensive description and testable theory of the complicated, but not unintelligible system of bank-firm relationships in the dynamic environment of a gradually deregulated financial market. It provides both theory and empirical evidence that close bank-firm...