This working paper provides a business history perspective on debates about the Great Divergence, the rise of the gap in incomes between the West and the Rest, and the more recent Great Convergence, which has seen a narrowing of that gap. The literature on the timing and causes of the Great...

Chapter 1: The international connections of the Australian colonies -- Chapter 2: Foreign investment before World War One -- Chapter 3: Hidden from view. The multinational enterprise in colonial Australia -- Chapter 4: Early entrants: MNEs in Australia, c.1820-70 -- Chapter 5: The Spread of the...

The UK and US tobacco industries provide a particularly clean place to examine the impact of changes in market structure on firm conduct and productivity in a rapidly innovating industry. Although each industry had roughly equal access to new manufacturing technologies, the industries were...

Nicolas Dutot (1684–1741) is an important figure for the history of economic thought, as a pioneer in monetary theory and price statistics, and for economic history as a chronicler of John Law’s System. Yet until recently very little about him was known, some of it incorrect. I present...