The Exchange

Cornell University History of Capitalism Summer Camp The application deadline is May 1, 2021. The form to submit your application is available here .

AVON: AN INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON ITS ARCHIVE In the 20 years since Avon Products, Inc., deposited its records at Hagley Library they have become one of our most popular research collections. A virtual event on May 7 will bring attention to their contribution to history. Avon Products, Inc., is one of the oldest direct selling companies in America. It traces its origins to 1886, when David H. McConnell bought the Union Publishing Company and started manufacturing perfumes to give away with his books. McConnell discovered that his customers were more interested in the fragrances than the books, so he decided to concentrate on selling perfumes. The business was renamed the California Perfume Company (CPC) in an effort to associate its products with the perceived beauty of the Golden State. From the beginning, CPC sold directly to the consumer through a national network of sales representatives, primarily women, who were looking for economic opportunity and flexible part-time employment. In...

  Please join me in congratulating the winners of the Mira Wilkins Prize ; Paolo di Martino, Mark Latham & Michelangelo Vasta, ‘Bankruptcy Laws around Europe (1850-2015): Institutional Change and Institutional Features’, Enterprise & Society 21: 4 (December 2020), 936-990. The committee, formed by Asli M. Colpan (Kyoto University, Japan), Rory M. Miller (University of Liverpool, UK), and Manuel Llorca-Jaña (Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile) "decided to award the prize to this paper for a number of reasons. The foundation for it is a large database of bankruptcy and insolvency laws which the authors have constructed, covering thirty European countries over 165 years; the data is fully detailed in the appendices to the paper. On this basis the authors have produced a properly comparative paper demonstrating how the legal provisions surrounding insolvency changed markedly over the period, yet differed significantly among countries, for example on who had the right to initiate...

Please join me in congratulating the winner of the Herman E. Krooss Prize for Best Dissertation in Business History; Dylan Gottlieb (Princeton University), for his 2020 dissertation, “Yuppies: Young Urban Professionals and the Making of Postindustrial New York.”

Please join me in congratulating the winners and finalists of the Hagley Prize; Hagley Prize The prize is awarded jointly by the Hagley Museum and Library and the Business History Conference to the best book in business history (broadly defined). 2021 Recipients ·         Marcia Chatelain, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America (WW Norton: 2019). ·         Ben Marsh, Unravelled Dreams: Silk and the Atlantic World, 1500–1840 (Cambridge: 2020). 2021 Finalists (in alphabetical order) ·         Marcia Chatelain, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America (WW Norton: 2019). ·         Jennifer Delton, The Industrialists: How the National Association of Manufacturers Shaped American Capitalism (Princeton: 2020). ·         Jan de Vries, The Price of Bread: Regulating the Market in the Dutch Republic (Cambridge: 2019). ·         Zachary D...

Business History in Times of Disruption: Embracing Complexity and Diversity Annual Meeting of the Business History Conference Sheraton Mexico City María Isabel Hotel Ciudad de México, México April 7-9, 2022 [ bookmark the CFP ] The Covid-19 crisis arrived with little warning, disrupting global business and trade. Industries as different as tourism, retail, and manufacturing were plunged into disarray by travel restrictions, broken supply chains, and quarantines. The pandemic also underscored the growing dangers posed by economic inequality and environmental degradation, hinting at a more tumultuous future. We have, it seems, entered into a new age of uncertainty. Informed by these developments, the 2022 Business History Conference will explore the diverse ways that entrepreneurs, firms, and organizations coped with complexity, uncertainty, and disruption over the long run. The Program Committee welcomes individual papers and session proposals that explore this theme. Submissions can a...

Your Archive is an Asset!  Using your heritage as a corporate strategic asset  24 March 2021 12.00 - 13.00 CET eabh zoom meeting eabh in conversation (on zoom) with Anders Sjöman (Centre for Business History in Stockholm) Discover how to convince your institution that it should keep its historic materials in a professional archive – and also set aside budgets for it. Register now to ensure your slot: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/138420097237/    More details available at: http://bankinghistory.org/events/your-archive-is-an-asset/