Historical and International Comparison of Business Interest Associations ― 19th-20th Centuries

This book brings together selected essays on European Business Interest Associations (BIAs) as important components of European social and economic development over the last 150 years. The studies were originally presented at the 2012 World Economic History Congress, organized in association with an international research programme on BIAs in Europe. They adopt a historical research methodology with the aim of updating previous scholarship from within the social sciences; they also look at a number of different European countries, allowing for a comparative approach. They explore the roots and identity of BIAs, analyse their activities and examine their financing sources and strategies. Some essays discuss the decline of the old system of craft guilds and the emergence of new forms of economic organization and representation: new BIAs had to contend with the development of the trade unions and the growth of state economic interventionism and so they progressively increased their activities in order to serve European companies. Other essays present specific national examples of the evolution of BIAs throughout the twentieth century and also look at the development of Eurofederations.

Daniele Fraboulet is Professor of Contemporary Economic History at the University of Paris 13 – Sorbonne Paris Cite. She is currently managing a five year research programme on Business Organizations in Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She has published extensively on the history of French companies, entrepreneurs and business interest associations. Her other main research field is risk management of industrial hazards and accidents in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Andrea M. Locatelli is Assistant Professor of Economic History at the Catholic University in Milan, where he teaches Economic History and Business History. He has published on the economic development of the Lombardy region between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries and the evolution of the banking system in Italy. His recent research topics concern the history of Lombard business interest Associations and the Italian fiscal and administrative system from the 1860s to the 1970s.
Paolo Tedeschi is Assistant Professor of Economic History at the University of Milan-Bicocca DEMS, where he teaches Economic History and European Integration History. His recent research and publications have focused on the history of European integration, the economic history of the Lombardy region between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries and the history of Lombard business interest associations, trade unions and friendly societies.