In fifteenth– and sixteenth–century Europe, international trade was often conducted by family partnerships. Commonly, one partner remained in the family's native land, while one or more family members established themselves temporarily or permanently abroad. In this article, Professor Mathers describes the mercantile activity of three families from the Spanish city of Burgos who profited from family partnerships that linked trade from northern Spain to England and France. She also examines the ways in which family inheritance practices and alternative family investments and expenditures affected the capital and continuity of the partnerships.

Much has been written about late-nineteenth-century multinationals and their relationship to the transnational firms of the present, but both historians and economists have largely discounted the relevance of the earlier chartered trading companies to this discussion. In an article emphasizing transaction cost analysis and the theory of the firm, Professors Carlos and Nicholas argue that the trading companies did meet the criteria of the modern MNE—the growth of a managerial hierarchy necessitated by a large volume of transactions and of systems to control those managers over space and time.

In the following essay, Dr. Schröter examines a specific case, German multinational activity in Scandinavia between the wars, and uses that information to raise more general questions about the nature of multinational enterprise. Before 1914, patterns of German foreign direct investment resembled those of the nation's competitors. After the First World War, however, having lost almost all their overseas holdings and suffering from a severe shortage of capital, German industries tried to replace foreign direct investment with other financial tools, principally cartels and long–term contracts. Using extensive German archival materials, Dr. Schröter describes the forces motivating these businesses.

The lengthy dispute about the role of big business in Hitler's Third Reich has generally portrayed business leaders either as instigators or as victims. The experience of Norton Company, an American multinational in Germany between 1933 and 1945, fits neither role. In this article, Professor Cheape demonstrates that Norton's German and American managers acted as outsiders compelled to play a part for their firm's long–run self–interest. As a result, Norton executives variously cooperated with, ignored, or violated Nazi policies, presenting a richer and more complex pattern of behavior than is usually pictured.

American multinational advertising agencies first made inroads into the British advertising industry in the early twentieth century. Some were pioneers, but most came to Britain to service the advertising of American–based multinational companies. Their impact on British advertising was significant, particularly from 1945 until the late 1970s, years when American multinational agencies dominated the top end of the business. The British staged a major counter-challenge in both the British and American markets in the early 1980s, however, with considerable success. The basis of the British challenge was improved access to capital, which permitted expansion through acquisition, rather than the servicing of British–based multinational companies. Professor West places these developments in the context of multinational enterprise theory, using new data and evidence drawn largely from trade sources.

The history of mining enterprise has recently become an important growth industry in both African and British Commonwealth business history. A number of important multinational mining corporations have in recent years opened their archives on assimilated or restructured parent companies active in overseas enterprise in the first half of this century. In the following essay, Professor Dumett surveys the extensive holdings of the leading British gold mining company in West Africa, the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation.