The House of Tata Meets the Second Industrial Revolution

Description

This monograph aims to analyze the economic and business history of colonial India from a corporate perspective by clarifying the historical role of institutional developments based on archival evidence of a representative enterprise. The perspective is distinctively unique in that it highlights the salience of corporate-level institutional responses to explain the causes of colonial India’s industrial growth, in addition to two renowned perspectives focusing on government economic policy or factor endowment. One of the driving forces of India’s high growth rate since the 1980s is the expansion of modern business corporations whose origins date back to the colonial era in the mid-nineteenth century. This monograph explores the historical foundation of the growth of such corporations in colonial India, guided by a substantial collection of documents of Tata Iron and Steel Company, whose rich records have not received the due attention they have long deserved. As clarified by numerous economic and business historians of leading industrialized countries since the works of Douglass North and Alfred Chandler, this study as well proposes that the development of modern business corporations in colonial India was broadly supported by the reciprocal evolution of economic institutions and corporate organizations. Adding a new perspective to the business and economic history of colonial India, the analysis also provides an important case study of the development of corporate business in the non-Western world to the study of global business history. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxii Introduction (Chikayoshi Nomura)....Pages 1-22 The Development of the Modern Business Corporation in 19th Century India: Building the Foundations for the Emergence of TISCO in the 20th Century (Chikayoshi Nomura)....Pages 23-60 TISCO During the Decade of the 1900s: The Formation Period (Chikayoshi Nomura)....Pages 61-102 Initial Failure to Produce Competitive Steel, Capitalization Problems and the Institution of an Internal Financing System (Chikayoshi Nomura)....Pages 103-148 Labour Unrest and the Introduction of a Direct Labour Management System (Chikayoshi Nomura)....Pages 149-182 The Financial Crisis of the 1920s, the Introduction of Tariff Protection and “Imperial Commitment” (Chikayoshi Nomura)....Pages 183-205 Continuing Labour Unrest, Efficiency Enhancing Schemes and Improvements in Labour Productivity During the Late 1920s (Chikayoshi Nomura)....Pages 207-250 The 1930s: Failure in Export-Oriented Development and Conservative Attitudes Towards Further Expansion (Chikayoshi Nomura)....Pages 251-268 Conclusion (Chikayoshi Nomura)....Pages 269-272 Back Matter ....Pages 273-287