This book reconsiders the role of nobility as influential economic players and provides new insights into the business activities of noblemen in Europe and Asia during the nineteenth century thus offering up opportunities for comparison in an age of economic expansion and globalisation. What was the contribution of the nobility to the economy? Can we consider noblemen to have been endowed with an entrepreneurial spirit? Research shows that far from being passive, throughout the century the European nobility were widely involved in business, carried on innovations, refined management strategies, and diversified their investments from agriculture to transport, industry and finance. Both in Europe and Asia businesses were embedded in social networks and personal relationships. In modern Japan after the Meiji Restoration - the unique case in Asia where a Western-style nobility was created - business, trust, personal connections and aristocratic marriages were intertwined and Japanese noblemen, especially the richer ones, acted as promoters of industrialisation, even though their role was certainly limited in time and space. This volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of economics, management, political science, sociology, public management and history. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Business History.

Highlighting the importance of regional and national differences in industrial development, this book is a pioneering long term comparison of the two regions of Lancashire and Kansai.

"Region and Strategy in Britain and Japan" is a long-term comparison of industrial development in Manchester and Osaka, together making a substantial contribution to our understanding of the continuing importance of national and regional differences. This book is written jointly by British and Japanese scholars who are recognized authorities in their field, providing an innovative and unique perspective. Chapters focus on big business, electronics, shipbuilding and textiles. The resulting study sheds a welcome new light on world economic history.