Family businesses, working lives and civic activism

2020 ◽  
pp. 49-91
Author(s):  
Alice Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Business Culture ◽  
Business Elite ◽  
Civic Activism ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

This chapter looks at the role of the business community and charts both the business and civic activity of members of the Belfast business elite. It gives overview of the economic and business culture in which the middle-classes lived and worked. Rather than an economic history of the city, it offers a people-centric view of the city and its economic environment. The focus is on three lesser-known business families of Belfast – the Workmans, Corrys and McCances. Particular attention is paid to the Workman and Corry businesses which together highlight the close-knit nature of the local economy, the interrelatedness of family businesses and the strong connections between industrialists in Belfast and their counterparts in Scotland. Like many of Belfast’s industrial elite, the Presbyterian Workman and Corry families moved to the up-and-coming town at the very beginning of the century to take advantage of the opportunities it had to offer. The first part of the chapter outlines these family businesses and the ways in which they were representative of the city’s business elite. The second part of the chapter discusses the civic activism in which these and other middle-class families engaged.

Studies in the Social and Economic History of Ostia

1938 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 152-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick H. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Made In

The first of these Studies was concerned chiefly with the history of Ostia during the period when the city was still growing and its prosperity increasing. Even so, during the period already considered, the prosperity of Ostia, though real, was to this extent artificial, in that it depended upon factors over which the citizens themselves had no control. Ostia was the port of Rome, and nothing else, and in consequence any lowering of the standard of living in, or reduction of imports into the capital city must have had immediate and marked repercussions upon her prosperity. She even lacked to a great extent those reserves of wealth which in other cities might be drawn upon to tide over bad times. The typical citizen of Ostia came to the city in the hope of making his fortune there; but when he had made it, he usually preferred to retire to some more pleasant town, such as Tibur, Tusculum, Velitrae, or Rome itself, where he could enjoy his leisure. Few families seem to have remained in the city for more than two, or, at the most, three generations. Whilst therefore fortunes were made in Ostia, wealth was not accumulated there.

Cuba Through A New Lens

2008 ◽  
Vol 81 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 265-270
Author(s):  
Jean Stubbs
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
New Haven ◽  
Yale University ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

[First paragraph]The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered. Samuel Farber. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. x + 212 pp. (Paper US$ 19.95)Cuba: A New History. Ric hard Gott . New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. xii + 384 pp. (Paper US$ 17.00)Havana: The Making of Cuban Culture. Antoni Kapcia. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2005. xx + 236 pp. (Paper US$ 24.95) Richard Gott, Antoni Kapcia, and Samuel Farber each approach Cuba through a new lens. Gott does so by providing a broad-sweep history of Cuba, which is epic in scope, attaches importance to social as much as political and economic history, and blends scholarship with flair. Kapcia homes in on Havana as the locus for Cuban culture, whereby cultural history becomes the trope for exploring not only the city but also Cuban national identity. Farber revisits his own and others’ interpretations of the origins of the Cuban Revolution.

The so-called “Magazzini Repubblicani” near the Porta Romana at Ostia

1935 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 77-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick H. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Building Activity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Region Ii ◽  
Eastern Half

The building with which this study is concerned occupies the eastern half of Region ii, 2, just inside the city gate at Ostia. Two specific statements have been made concerning it, that it commenced as magazzini or horrea in the republican era, and that it was converted into baths in the late third century A.D.; these were the suggestions of the excavators, and have never yet been questioned. They are points of considerable importance, because this building would thus be the only example of republican horrea yet discovered in Ostia, and the conversion of horrea into baths or shops, which the theory implies, would be important for the economic history of Ostia, whether the reason for the change was the concentration of horrea elsewhere or merely the decline of the city. The second statement, too, would point to building activity in Ostia at a time when no other big building was being put up. This paper is an attempt to prove that at no time was the building used as horrea, and that the conversion to baths is to be placed not in the third, but in the late first, or very early second century A.D. Five main periods will be distinguished, of which the appended table gives a summary.

scholarly journals Impressions and Glimpses of the Socio-Economic History of Migrant Settlement in Glasgow

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-50
Author(s):  
Mohan Luthra
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Economic Evolution ◽  
Enterprise Development ◽  
World War ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

Accounts of the history of migrant and refugee settlement in Glasgow from mid nineteenth century onwards have been lacking in two aspects. Firstly, their arrival and settlement as well as their economic participation profile has not been placed in the context of the socio-economic evolution of the city. Secondly, a broader overview of the history of the arrival of a range of diverse migrant and settlement groups, their integration against a changing economic backdrop as well as ecological factors they encountered, and the implications of these for community relations, has not been constructed. In addition, there appears to have been little attempt to focus on this period with a view to identify if there are any patterns of community economic identities which evolved based on enterprise development as well as the challenges the entrepreneurial or commercial sections of the community may have faced. In this first of the two-part series of working papers we explore mainly the experience and challenges of the invisible minority’s settlement patterns in these respects and attempt to develop an impressionistic socio-economic picture. We attempt to do the same for the post World War II Asian (mostly Panjabi’s of Indian and Pakistan origin) communities’ arrival and settlement in a subsequent working paper to be published soon.

Origins of a Modern Indian Capitalist Class in Bombay

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Boehme
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Western India ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Business Elite ◽  
Business Interests ◽  
Commercial Networks ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

In India, as in much of the world, the 19th century witnessed the emergence of urban capitalist classes, effected by the rapid growth of global mercantile capitalism and, later, industrial manufacturing. As a colonial city, Bombay—like its eastern counterpart, Calcutta—developed two connected, but distinct business communities: one, a European community with foreign, imperial connections, and the other, an Indian community with roots in long-standing regional networks. In Bombay, the latter took the form of a class known as the “Merchant Princes,” who capitalized on long-standing commercial traditions in western India and their ability to command both Indian and colonial networks to establish themselves as commercial powerhouses. These commercial networks and patterns of behavior, established before the arrival of the British, had an indelible impact on the character of Indian business in colonial Bombay. The business community brought such traditions with them when they migrated to Bombay at the end of the 18th century and used them to build the famous mercantile firms of the early 19th century. The Indian business elite likewise built collaborative links within their own community to expand their business interests; when barriers erected by the colonial establishment sought to limit their expansion, Indian businessmen used the resources at their disposal (both in the Indian hinterland and within the city itself) to circumvent them. Class identity similarly began to emerge as they cooperatively campaigned for particular agendas, intended to improve the fortunes of the entire community. They fought for greater influence in the Bombay government—in line with the wealth they then commanded—and used their financial resources to mold the physical and intellectual landscape of the city in their favor.

Interview with Dr. William O’Hara

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul I. Karofsky
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Executive Director ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Family Enterprise ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Research

Dr. William O’Hara, the executive director of Bryant College’s Institute for Family Enterprise (IFE), answers questions dealing with many aspects of his life. By founding the IFE and continually adapting it to the condition of the marketplace, O’Hara maintains a commitment to expanding the knowledge of the family business community. O’Hara’s new research into the history of family businesses hints at an underlying framework that is still applicable today. He spoke with Paul I. Karofsky, executive director of Northeastern University’s Center for Family Business.

Some Reflections on the Pre-Industrial City

Urban History ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 13-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Burke
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tribal Societies ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Europe ◽  
The City

In the last few years, a new word has gained popularity among historians: ‘pre-industrial’. Specialists in the social and economic history of Europe before 1800 have become increasingly aware that the object of their studies is simply one case among others of what sociologists call ‘traditional society’, and that it is easier to understand traditional or pre-industrial Europe if it is compared and contrasted with other societies of this type. Thus Keith Thomas and Alan Macfarlane have illuminated English witchcraft by making comparisons with witchcraft in African tribal societies, while Frédéric Mauro and Witold Kula, among others, have compared the economies of early modern Europe with those of the developing countries today. Even Richard Cobb, no great friend to the social sciences, has recorded that he came to understand eighteenth-century Paris better after visiting contemporary Calcutta. In fact, the city is an obvious and splendidly tangible unit of comparison, and it is not surprising that the term ‘pre-industrial city’ is passing into general use.

Evolution of the Textile Industry of Puebla 1544–1845

1964 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Bazant
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
New Spain ◽  
History Of ◽  
Textile Industries ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City ◽  
Industrial Center

This article deals with an important chapter in the economic history of Mexico. Throughout its history Puebla was an industrial center. Well into the 19th century it was the prime center of the country's chief manufacture — textiles. The city became the commercial and industrial capital of New Spain within a few years of its foundation. I shall concentrate on the ways in which the several branches of the textile industry were organized, comparing their development with that of the textile industries of medieval and early industrial Europe.

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