Search

The ambitious 15-year agenda known as the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015 by all members of the United Nations, contains a pledge that "no one will be left behind." This book aims to translate that bold global commitment into an action-oriented mindset, focused on supporting specific people in specific places who are facing specific problems. In this volume, experts from Japan, the United States, Canada, and other countries address a range of challenges faced by people across the globe, including women and girls, smallholder farmers, migrants, and those living in extreme poverty. These are many of the people whose lives are at the heart of the aspirations embedded in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. They are the people most in need of such essentials as health care, quality education, decent work, affordable energy, and a clean environment. This book is the result of a collaboration between the Japan International Cooperation Research Institute and the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. It offers practical ideas for transforming "leave no one behind" from a slogan into effective actions which, if implemented, will make it possible to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. In addition to policymakers in the field of sustainable development, this book will be of interest to academics, activists, and leaders of international organizations and civil society groups who work every day to promote inclusive economic and social progress.

This collection of best practices shares how 18 higher education institutions across the country have successfully evaluated and redesigned their student financial services programs to improve services to students and their parents and find cost savings for the institution. This volume illustrates how other institutions have successfully tackled such issues as: (1) Integrating systems to offer a student-centered, "one-stop" model; (2) Designing and implementing multi-campus solutions; (3) Understanding bursar/financial aid differences; (4) Developing an enterprise-wide portal; (5) Merging financial aid and bursar offices; (6) Administering financial aid and funds management; (7) Managing strategic enrollment; (8) Exploring innovative financial aid options; (9) Meeting common bursar challenges; and (10) Measuring student financial system performance. Following an introduction by Kristine Dillon and Nancy Sinsabaugh, this publication is divided into seven parts. Part I, Student Service Centers, contains: (1) One-Stop Student Service Centers: Virtual and Actual, by Jacquelyn Nealon); (2) Formula One-Stop: Columbia University's Student Services Transformation Initiative (Michelle H. Brown-Nevers and Lisa Hogarty); (3) Student-Centered Administrative Services at the University of Pennsylvania (Frank Claus); and (4) Integrated Services at Belmont University: Student Finance Issues for CFOs (Kathryn Baugher and Paula A. Gill). Part II, The Back Office, contains: (5) The Path to Paperless[TM] at the University of Minnesota: Designing and Providing Electronic Billing and Payment Services for Institutions of Higher Education (Julie Selander); (6) Implementation of E-Billing, E-Payment, and Deferred Payment Plans at Frostburg State University (Roger Bruszewski, Richard Repac, Tina Nightingale, and Michael Sheetz); (7) Modernizing the Bursar Office: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Daniel Maguffin); and (8) University Student Financial Services and Cashier Operations: A Novel Approach at the University of Illinois (Jeffrey Cummins). Part III, Portals, contains: (9) The Evolution of Stanford's Enterprise Portal (Eric Armstrong). Part IV, Financial Aid, contains: (10) A Financial Aid Primer from Michigan State University (Rick Shipman); and (11) Financial Aid Strategic Planning and Packaging at Indiana University (James Charles Kennedy and Susan L. Pugh). Part V, Advancement and Student Finance, contains: (12) Innovative Approaches to Financing: Howard Community College (Kate Hetherington, Barbara Greenfield, and Lynn Coleman); (13) Georgetown's Creative Fund-raising Effort to Offer More Competitive Aid Packages (Patricia McWade); and (14) MIT Scholarship Development and Stewardship (Susan Wilson). Part VI, Process Redesign, contains: (15) Changing Billing and Registration Processes: Temple University (David R. Glezerman); (16) The Advantages of Outsourcing at Miami University (Virginia Layton); and (17) Credit Balance and Student Refund Process Enhancement at Flagler College (Richard Jacobs). Part VII, Measuring Performance, contains: (18) Measuring Effectiveness in Student Fiscal Services at the University of Washington (Ruth Johnston). A list of selected resources and an index are included. Individual chapters contain figures and tables. [Funding for this publication was provided by Higher One.

This book examines the audit and accountability environment of public education. It provides the reader with an assessment of the current status and future potential of audits of State and local education agencies (SEAs/LEAs) and makes suggestions and recommendations for both auditors and educators. An in-depth review of the development of contemporary auditing provides background on how and why auditing has been changing. A Conceptual framework that identifies important audit concepts is developed and the proper approaches to the conduct of contemporary auditing is discussed. The volume identifies and discusses the auditing agencies that are members of the SEA/LEA Audit Network and presents the findings of The Auditing to Improve Departments of Education (AIDE) Project. The final chapter discusses future directions of SEA/LEA auditing, including specific recommendations of The AIDE Project. The book is principally addressed to educational managers and auditors. (Author/DN)

Many people are investing these days, but many librarians, especially non-business librarians, are uncomfortable helping patrons with questions on the subject. This reference guide gives librarians the knowledge and confidence to assist patrons in identifying the correct information in a critical but little understood investment area--the bond market. Written in an easily understandable style, this guide provides the basic background information on: what a bond is; how to distinguish between different types of bonds; how bonds are rated; how to evaluate bonds and track their performance; and useful reference sources. The following sections are included: "Introduction" (Lydia E. LaFaro); "Bonds and the Bond Market" (Louise Klusek); "Bond Ratings" (Steven L. Lubetkin); "Sources of Bond Information" (Louise Klusek); "Bibliography of Bond Information Sources" (Louise Klusek); "Listing of Major Bond Indexes" (Gary White and Craig Wilkins); and "Glossary of Bond Terms" (Gary White, Tom Mirkovich, and Craig Wilkins). Included is a comprehensive list of the most useful reference sources on bonds, and an extensive glossary of terms related to the bond market. (SWC)

This guide to paying for college is written for families that expect to pay most, if not all, of the costs of college out of savings, investments, gifts, inheritances, borrowed funds, or a combination. It outlines usual approaches but also indicates some unorthodox methods. Chapters cover the following topics: (1) planning for college expenses; (2) saving; (3) savings instruments (financial instruments; savings accounts; NOW accounts, money-market deposits; certificates of deposit, money-market funds, savings bonds, treasury bills, notes, and bonds; government securities; mortgage-backed securities; zero-coupon bonds; municipal bonds, corporate bonds, common stocks, insurance); (4) gifts (inheritances, gifts under the Uniform Gifts to Minors Act, and "borrowback"); (5) taxes and income shifting; (6) trusts and loans (minors' trusts, Clifford trusts, Crummey trusts, and charitable-remainder trusts); (7) business and college costs (hiring children, educational fringe benefits, children as partners, corporations, business gifts and leasebacks, borrowing from retirement plans); (8) borrowing (pay-as-you-go, lines of credit, home equity loans, margin accounts, Higher Education Amendments of 1992, college loan and tuition programs); and (9) tailoring financial strategies to personal circumstances (profiles of six types of families). Appendixes contain 1994 tax rate schedules, gift tax table, income tax rate for trusts, interest rates and yields, and worksheets and tables. Includes a glossary and an index. (JB)

The Commission on College Retirement was formed to review the role and functioning of college and university retirement programs and make recommendations for program improvements. This volume brings together five separate reports issued by the commission. "Retirement Ages for College and University Personnel" addresses the issues of retirement age policy in light of federal and state laws, the tenure system, and the provision of sound and sensible retirement programs. "Transferability of Funds Being Accumulated by TIAA-CREF for the Benefit of College and University Personnel" recommends that funds be transferable from the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and the College Retirement Equities Fund to approved third-party investment managers and providers of annuities, and describes a newly identified legal right to compel such transferability. "A Pension Program for College and University Personnel" points out the advantages and disadvantages of the two different pension approaches currently in use--one a defined contribution plan, the other a defined benefit plan--and makes recommendations for the improvement of both. "Implementing Financial Planning, Information, and Administrative Services" recommends that pension accumulations be transferred among approved investment managers during the accumulation phase, and proposes an individualized target benefit approach for retirement planning. Also included in the monograph are "A Plan To Create Comprehensive Group Long-Term Care Insurance for College and University Personnel" and a working paper on encouraging continued activity after retirement. The reports are accompanied by introductory material, epilogues, and a postscript designed to provide a fuller context for the reports and to add the perspective provided by events that followed the original issue of the reports. (JDD)

This book offers investment strategies for participants in the primary retirement organization for universities and nonprofit organizations, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF). The investment principles outlined also apply to retirement funds offered by other investment companies. The book's scope includes investment options which have not yet been implemented by TIAA-CREF but are in the planning stages. An introductory chapter explains the concepts of financial planning and retirement planning; a history of TIAA-CREF is then presented. Chapter 3 discusses the process involved in choosing an investment strategy, and chapters 4-7 outline specific strategies, including asset allocation, dollar averaging, transferring accumulations, and using the new TIAA-CREF offerings. Chapter 8 explains services offered to TIAA-CREF participants, focusing on understanding TIAA-CREF statements, using the automated telephone system, obtaining retirement benefits, and taking advantage of Supplemental Retirement Annuities. A final chapter addresses investments other than retirement funds and how they fit into the financial planning process. Appendices list selected TIAA-CREF publications, TIAA-CREF toll-free numbers, independent companies offering tax sheltered annuities, investment software programs, and useful addresses. 31 references. (JDD)

This publication examines the influence of credit ratings on public debt financing and helps to resolve some of the developing controversy concerning this subject. It investigates the rating activities of the two private investment advisory firms--Moody's and Standard & Poor's--and the use of ratings by governmental borrowers, investors, investment bankers, and the regulatory bodies for banks and insurance companies. The behavior of these participants in the municipal market provides clear evidence that ratings significantly affect the cost of capital to public borrowers. The majority of the task force members believe that the rating agencies are doing a creditable job given their resources. To improve the structure of the rating system and its uses by the various market participants, the task force made a number of recommendations, such as additional disclosures of criteria used in determining ratings, more frequent review of outstanding issues, separate ratings for short-term debt, and cooperation with all market participants in improving the understanding of ratings and their importance in communicating essential financial information. The major recommendation is to establish a national data bank to accumulate local government statistics and financial information for dissemination to all market participants. (Author/DN)

This handbook addresses itself to Vietnamese refugees and is intended to help them cope with everyday situations in the United States. The entire text is given in both Vietnamese and English. The three main sections are: (1) Refugee Status--information about the legal status of refugees, identification procedures, obligations, some Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) procedures and functions, and assistance available from volunteer agencies, sponsors, and government agencies, (2) Information about the United States--the land, climate and people, government structure and services, local laws, and official holidays, and (3) Living in the United States--information and suggestions about housing, health care, food, employment, education, finances, business ownership, transportation, shopping, and community resources. An appendix gives a list of Immigration and Naturalization Offices throughout the country, a map of the United States and conversion tables for temperature and measures. (TL)

This booklet is part of a series of monographs focusing on conflicts of interest in different sectors of the financial industry. This particular study examines a number of conflict-of-interest problems related to the management of public pension funds. In his discussion, the author analyzes a variety of related problems, such as the selection of investment managers and the pressure to allocate brokerage commissions and custodian services to local firms. Separate short chapters discuss the management of public pension fund investments, the role of public pension fund trustees, preference for local interests in managing and investing pension funds, investment of pension funds in common stocks and selection of securities brokers and analysts, investment of pension funds in fixed-income securities, and future prospects for the Social Security system. (JG)

Intended for both the student and the practitioner, this text examines the role and function of the school business administrator and offers practical information relevant to the job. The authors recognize that the function of school business administration has radically changed in response to social changes. They believe that conventional projections of resource requirements and availability are dysfunctional and must be replaced by an approach that can accommodate nonlinear variables. This approach is described as a planning approach. The volume incorporates considerations of emerging conditions such as new legislation pertaining to race and sex discrimination, the changing responsibilities of school principals in business affairs, the acceptance of program budgeting, the increased sophistication of information and management systems, and new patterns in collective bargaining. Topics discussed include management techniques, human relations and communications techniques, data processing, budgeting, personnel administration, accounting, auditing, reporting, purchasing, inventory control, distribution, building maintenance and operation, insurance programs, auxiliary services, and capital outlay. (Author/JM)

Issues concerning college student loans are addressed in 10 chapters written by educators, guarantee agency administrators, and government officials. Topics include: loan repayment, the impact of loans on access, loan programs in five industrialized nations, and the Guaranteed Student Loan program and other sources of financial aid. Chapter titles and authors are as follows: "Myths and Realities of Student Indebtedness" (Joseph Marr Cronin, Sylvia Quarles Simmons); "Repayment, Responsibility, and Risk" (Dennis J. Martin); "The IRS Student Loan Collection Program" (Richard Hastings); "The Dilemmas of Loan Counseling: A Practitioner Viewpoint" (Ann Coles, Janice Dorian, Theresa Orr, S. Simmons); "Access to Higher Education: A Shared Responsibility" (Dolores E. Cross); "Minority Students in Higher Education: A New England Perspective" (Richard G. King); "International Perspectives: A Five-Nation Study" (D. Bruce Johnstone); "Student Financial Aid: An International Perspective" (J. Cronin); "The Prospect for Family Education Loans" (Ernest T. Freeman, Thomas D. Parker); and "Improving Student Aid" (J. Cronin, S. Simmons). Appended are a glossary and information on: ACCESS, a counseling and tuition aid program; the Higher Education Information Center; and the Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation. (SW)

This book describes the operation of state and local government pension systems for teachers, explores the rationale behind current administrative and financial practices, and describes the interaction of special interest groups, pension professionals, and investment personnel with the administration of these systems. The pension systems in 23 states and 4 cities were examined through interviews with more than 200 people--including trustees, plan administrators, legislators, union officials, investment professionals, actuaries, financial consultants, academics, and others affiliated with state and local pension systems--along with review of basic retirement data and documents. After a brief introduction, chapter 2 provides an overview of the structure of the three major types of retirement systems for teachers: public corporation systems, hybrid systems, and government systems. Remaining chapters focus on the following: (1) the boards of trustees; (2) the administration of investment; (3) pensions and the legislative process; (4) the politics of public employee retirement systems and teacher unions; (5) the national focus; (6) actuarial services; (7) investment practices; and (8) performance measurement and custodial processes. The final chapter presents observations on public employee retirement systems: their structure, the influences upon them, and their future. References are included. (TE)

There has been substantial public and regulatory attention of late to apparent exploitation of conflicts of interest involving financial services firms based on financial market imperfections and asymmetric information. This paper proposes a workable taxonomy of conflicts of interest in financial services firms, and links it lo the nature and scope of activities conducted by such firms, including possible compounding of interest-conflicts in multifunctional client relationships, it lays out the conditions that either encourage or constrain exploitation of conflicts of interest, focusing in particular on the role of information asymmetries and market discipline, including the shareholder-impact of litigation and regulatory initiatives. External regulation and market discipline are viewed as both complements and substitutes -- market discipline can leverage the impact of external regulatory sanctions, while improving its granularity though detailed management initiatives applied under threat of market discipline. At the same time, market discipline may help obviate the need for some types of external control of conflict of interest exploitation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By general European and world standards, French industrialisation started relatively early, France alongside Belgium and Switzerland being Britain's closest rival in the first half of the nineteenth century. However, as this survey has shown, the spread of industrial processes and the development of the secondary sector only really took hold after the First World War, and even more so after the Second. In 1970, France had become an industrial power, with 45 per cent of its GNP originating in the secondary sector. Within a decade, however, de-industrialisation had ushered in the virtual decimation of entire industries while service industries were, albeit imperfectly, taking their place. Most French historians tend to treat the French ‘path of development’ as absolutely unique and are keen to vindicate the extensive government intervention which was supposedly deployed – in contrast to the British ‘laissez-faire’ model – to promote the country's industrial modernisation. On even a cursory inspection, however, the two paths appear remarkably similar if not parallel. Like Britain's (and those of most other developed countries), only with a varying time lag, France's economy went successively through the transformation of its agriculture and intensive industrialisation before shifting to sophisticated industrial operations and services. In the French case, the state is supposed to have played the decisive role in mobilising energies and encouraging technological innovation aimed at improving the wellbeing of the nation at large; but government intervention in industry for most of the twentieth century proved to be no less extensive in Britain than in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Late-medieval England was a land of dichotomies. The most conspicuous were those between upland and lowland, dispersed and nucleated settlement, woodland and champion, weak and strong lordship, free and customary tenants and tenures, remoteness and proximity to major markets, and between the marches and the metropolitan core. Some of these contrasts were inherent in England's climate and topography, others sprang from deep-rooted human institutions such as field systems, manors, and property rights, while yet others derived from the centralising and differentiating forces of governments and commercial exchange. Many of these dichotomies had a strong north–south dimension but this does not necessarily mean that there was such a thing as a ‘North–South divide’ or that distinctions between the North and the South should be privileged above other spatial and regional differences. The strength and nature of these dichotomies also varied over time, depending upon whether centripetal or centrifugal tendencies were more to the fore. Any systems shift in the balance between these two tendencies was likely to heighten the tensions between core and periphery thereby giving rise to expressions of northern (and southern) consciousness (Jewell 1994). This is what seems to have happened at the close of the Middle Ages. It was then that the dichotomy between North and South in the medieval period was probably at its most pronounced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early modernity Generally known as ‘the early modern period’, this span of time is identified by the onset of ‘modernity’: that is, the deployment of instrumental human reason in relationships with nature and people, eventually to create an incomparably more materially productive, intricately ordered and expansive world (Graham and Nash 2000: 1–7). Human lives, livelihoods and geographies began to change profoundly as people and institutions deliberately set out to improve material life and its natural, social and political settings. This quest for improvement required the communication of both abstract and instrumental knowledge, in written and other forms. Modernity is therefore not only a state of being, but also, necessarily, a communicated state of knowing: a text about itself. Because we can only deliberately maintain and sustain, or improve and progress, through the elucidation of relationships between past, present and future, modernity's texts are inevitably historical. People began to recount what others wanted (and what they wanted others) to know about their world as it actually was, and to explain how it was changing for better or worse. Of course, such profound structural and conceptual changes cannot happen suddenly or synchronously, and a ‘late’ something else must also have existed in the period: which would be ‘feudalism’ according to conventional historical tags. What that and its geography were are the subject of the next chapter, but it is necessary in this one to be wary of looking only for the beginnings of what later became general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard questions about the nature of any North–South divide in England during particular historical periods have not produced standard answers. This is hardly surprising, given the country's changing geography during the last millennium and the differing intellectual baggages brought to this project by its contributors. Nonetheless, it is possible to unravel some common threads running throughout these essays and we want here to identify a few of them. Both the character and the historical status of England's North–South divide have been explored. The concept of such a divide is deeply embedded in today's popular culture and frequently brought to the surface by today's media, which feeds on oppositions and conflicts. But it has also been shown to have deep historical roots. A negative image of the North has been cultivated in recent decades in travel writing, in television documentaries, in novels and in films. Reflecting upon recent such works, Raphael Samuel concluded: In any of these literatures, the North of England is apt to fare badly. As the original home of many of this country's staple industries it is peculiarly vulnerable to the charge of being economically moribund. Gastronomically, the people are accused of being overweight and addicted to an unhealthy diet. Environmentally, the North was the great victim of the planning disasters of the 1960s, having more than its fair share of multi-storey car parks, express throughways and ‘peripheral’ council estates. Medically, as the statistics on lung cancer, heart disease and infant mortality never fail to record, it lags behind the rest of Britain. […] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chalk and cheese In 1755, two years before Clive finally secured Bengal for the Crown and four years before Sir Edmund Halley perceived pattern in a comet, Dr Johnson published the ‘first’ English dictionary. It was a defining moment in every sense: not, of course, that it was simply a matter of words. The Dictionary of the English Language also contained an English Grammar together with a rudimentary History of the English Language and, taken together, they surely spoke of a wider intent. Johnson's project – which enjoyed significant patronage – was no less than an attempt to moderate a language and, through it, to establish a culture: a terminological pretext for a national biography (Winchester 1998). So, as soldiery and science reached out to place England in its widest context, lexicography reached in: to regulate Englishness and to calibrate its nature. Yet, even as Dr Johnson searched for this common key to a common history, obvious questions arose: by whom was this language spoken and (precisely) whose history did it express? Words and their pronunciation: standard, received, dialect, colloquial, foreign or archaic are indicative not of commonality, but of difference; of the specific not the generic; and once defined in their difference, different they remain: chalk is not cheese, just as sense is not sensibility [the latter is, of course, the title of Jane Austen's novel (1811). I use it precisely because linguistic sport of this kind was much enjoyed in the late-eighteenth century]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of the twentieth century the world's first industrial nation had achieved an unprecedented level of economic development, its economy wealthier and more powerful than ever, its people more populous and prosperous. Britain's workshops, forges and factories still accounted for a quarter of the world's manufacturing output. The country retained its pre-eminent commercial position as the universal merchant to the world. And it had extended its role at the heart of the global financial system, becoming not only the world's biggest trading nation but also its biggest lender. More trade was invoiced in sterling than in any other currency, and, perhaps most remarkably of all, British citizens owned more overseas assets than their counterparts in all the other developed economies combined. On the eve of the Great War, the British people were three or four times more productive than they had been at Victoria's accession to the throne. They were living longer, living better – again, on average, three times better – and evidently made the most of their greatly augmented earnings in a fully developed mass consumer society (Floud 1997). Generations of scholars have nevertheless come to view the central problem of modern British history as one of economic failure (Supple 1994; Tomlinson 1996). ‘The principal question concerning the history of the British economy must … be why the rate of growth has always been so slow, performance so consistently mediocre’ (Lee 1986: 271). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction In the period since the Second World War, and especially since the 1970s, the unity and meaning of the United Kingdom, virtually unchallenged for two hundred years, has come increasingly into question. One by one, the very forces and assumptions that helped to forge a sense of national identity and common unity, have disappeared. The spell was broken by the Suez debacle in 1956, which compelled the British people at last to begin the painful task of reassessing their sense of themselves and their position in the world. From the mid-1960s onwards, a growing awareness of national relative economic decline – of a progressive slippage of the nation down the international league table of living standards – fuelled the process, and stimulated a flood of jeremiads on the causes and consequences of Britain's economic failure (Manser 1971; Barnett 1972; Kramnick 1975; Allen 1976; Eatwell 1982; Pollard 1982; Roderick and Stephens 1982; Smith 1984), a literary genre that continued into the 1990s (Coates 1994; Hutton 1996; Clarke and Trebilcock 1997). A surge of Scottish and Welsh nationalism in the early 1970s, and the public debate on federalism and devolution this activated, merely compounded the sense of gloom surrounding the state and unity of the nation. Little wonder that political commentators talked of the ‘break up of Britain’ (Nairn 1981). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge traditionally has been the foundation of Swiss Re's culture and a crucial component of its organizational strategy. Swiss Re defines Knowledge Management as "understanding and enhancing the information flow and decision making of the organization to leverage both for customer, shareholder, and employee value." This chapter looks at the three strategies that comprise Swiss Re's knowledge management initiative, using alignment, technology, and law as levers to further strengthen the firm's knowledge assets. To illuminate further the way knowledge is used in the abstract business of reinsurance, Swiss Re's knowledge management practices are contextualized within the prototypical knowledge management displayed by Thomas Edison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial infrastructure is essential to the world economy yet is largely neglected within the academic innovation literature. This chapter provides an overview of innovation in financial infrastructure. It shows how external infrastructure technologies between institutions improve market liquidity by increasing the reach of markets. Internal infrastructure technologies within institutions are used to co-ordinate the profitable allocation of resources. The heavy regulation of the industry, the software intensity of modern infrastructure technologies, the way in which they have multiple users and their increasing complexity create extra uncertainties in their design and development. As a consequence, they have very different patterns of innovation from traditional consumer goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the dramatic expansion of United States cotton manufacturing in the late nineteenth century, Lancashire remained the home of the world's largest cotton industry before the First World War. Yet, during the war and afterwards the increased capacity and continued labour productivity growth in the United States meant that by 1924, the United States had overtaken Britain as the largest producer of cotton cloth (see Table 7.1). During the 1920s and more especially the 1930s, on the other hand, both industries encountered the increasing competitive threat of Japan at home and abroad. The Japanese share of world cotton textile exports outstripped Britain by 1933, a lead which she sustained throughout the 1930s, as Figures 7.1 and 7.2 demonstrate. By the outbreak of the First World War, despite common technological origins, the British and American cotton industries had developed along quite different trajectories. Distinctiveness in the experience of industrialisation, in government–industry relations, in commercial policy and in the characteristics of product and factor markets meant that the historical forces shaping business strategy were strikingly dissimilar. The sharpest contrast came in the product and market orientation of the two nations, with Britain having the world's most export-oriented cotton industry. On the other hand, efforts to penetrate the Far Eastern market had only marginally reduced the legendary reliance of the United States cotton industry on its domestic market. The divergent evolution of the two industries and the resultant contrasts in organisation and capabilities make the shared experience of difficulties and decay in the interwar period all the more remarkable – their explanation is one of the principal themes of this chapter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preceding four chapters have explored the forces which shaped the evolution of business attitudes and the emergence of networks in the British and American cotton industries before 1860. Their findings are summarised in Table 6.1 which demonstrates that, whilst sharing the common concerns of production, profitability and market penetration, businessmen on either side of the Atlantic often displayed differences in priorities, perceptions and behaviour. These were born of the varying social, political and economic forces to which they were subject, and in turn were translated into the culture of business. For example, the production-driven strategies, detected in much of the United States cotton industry, clearly only partly resulted from resource allocation. Rather they derived from a combination of collective approaches to community development traceable even to the colonial period, from a faith in the power of technology which was rarely contradicted by the workforce and the habitual transience of the workforce plus a confidence in a protected domestic market. Yet in Britain eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century infant industry protection against cheap colonial imports allowed the successful development of cotton manufacturing. However, the constraints of a small, but strongly differentiated domestic market, combined with overseas opportunities, brought with it greater market complexity than was then the case in America and significantly enhanced the relative power of mercantile groups, as opposed to manufacturers. This factor, combined with a need for cheap imported raw materials, a reliance on overseas markets for business expansion and the social and political forces which brought free trade, led to a shift in government policy in favour of liberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically family firms have been vital during industrialisation throughout the world and were synonymous with the early development of cotton textiles in both Britain and the United States. Whether as the result of institutional failure stemming from underdevelopment, or as a reflection of pre-industrial wealth patterns, or a combination of the two, family businesses lay at the heart of the First Industrial Revolution on either side of the Atlantic. In eighteenth-century Britain family firms proliferated in most branches of manufacturing, commerce and finance. With the spectre of bankruptcy ever present in the hazardous world of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a combination of the common law partnership and unlimited liability meant that many businessmen preferred to be associated with their family connections than with outsiders. This was less a reflection of conservatism than a strategy to ameliorate the worst effects of uncertainty. In the United States too, the regional take-off of New England and Pennsylvania was based upon personal capitalism which proved crucial in the cotton industry. Similarly in the Southern states the, admittedly limited, development was founded on family-based, community-oriented firms. The popularity of family business in the early British and American cotton industries in both manufacturing and commercial arrangements was, therefore, a predictable response to instability. However, national differences in the sources of uncertainty, in economic circumstances, in the institutional environment and in that complex array of historical forces which shape both business and national culture mean that, whilst ownership and control were united in both countries, the form which this took and the strategies pursued were at times strikingly different (Gerschenkron 1953: 1–19; Kindleberger 1964: 113–14). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]