This book examines how multinational enterprises and international finance influenced the course of electrification around the world. Multinational enterprises played a crucial role in the spread of electric light and power from the 1870s through the first three decades of the twentieth century. Their role did not persist, as over time they exited through domestication (buy-outs, confiscations, or other withdrawals), so that by 1978 multinational enterprises in this sector had all but disappeared, replaced by electrical utility providers with national business structures. Yet, in recent...

This book examines how multinational enterprises and international finance influenced the course of electrification around the world. Multinational enterprises played a crucial role in the spread of electric light and power from the 1870s through the first three decades of the twentieth century. Their role did not persist, as over time they exited through domestication (buy-outs, confiscations, or other withdrawals), so that by 1978 multinational enterprises in this sector had all but disappeared, replaced by electrical utility providers with national business structures. Yet, in recent...

Finance and Modernization centres on a set of historical developments and problems typified by the long history of the A sterreichische Creditanstalt and its successor organizations, and opens the way to compare and contrast experiences throughout Central and Western Europe and also on other continents. The structure of this volume reflects the changing role and nature of banks as economies become industrialized and modernized. Although banks adapt to the needs of an industrializing economy, at the same time, industrialization influences the manner in which banking systems grow and the...