Introduction

What kinds of multinational enterprises (MNEs) existed before 1939? When and why had they been set up? In which branches of activity and in which countries did they operate, and were there any systematic differences between the various types: those, say, established to exploit overseas raw materials (supply-orientated MNEs) and those for producing goods overseas (marketorientated MNEs)? How was head-office control exercised over the foreign branches? Precise answers to these and associated questions would be valuable, both as extensions to our historical knowledge and as empirical evidence to which present-day theories of the MNE could be applied: for instance, the types of advantage firms are held to pursue when venturing abroad. So far these theories have had to be tested with current or very recent data.

To be sure, there are many case studies of pre-1939 MNEs, which have individually or jointly yielded some useful generalisations and hypotheses. Also work has been, or is being, undertaken on today's top MNEs and their historical background, including – where relevant – that for the period being considered here. Such work is far from complete in that it omits smaller firms which operated overseas and those which have gone out of production: these omissions could possibly have been quite significant in aggregate. Nor do these researches differentiate enough between the various MNE types.