When science could not provide a solution to transaction problems in the British wire industry c.1880, market groups had to negotiate a business solution. This involved converging towards a 'one-size-fits-all' standard: a process requiring compromises and cooperation between competitive firms,...

This article evaluates efforts to standardize quantities in the London coal trade c1830, and traces the end of the public measurement system first introduced in the fourteenth century. Increasing traffic in coal, reduction of taxes on the commodity, inefficient public meters, etc., contributed...

Evidence from promotion ladders and the wage payment system of the GER is evaluated to see if it supports existing claims, primarily based on welfare and pension provision, that by 1900 the railway companies had become the first important adherents in the country to a system of internal labour...