Local business voice : the history of chambers of commerce in Britain, Ireland, and revolutionary America, 1760-2011
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Local business voice : the history of chambers of commerce in Britain, Ireland, and revolutionary America, 1760-2011
Oxford University Press, 2011
Available at 9 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [844]-883) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Local Business Voice provides the first scholarly and systematic history of the Chambers of Commerce from early historical origins in the eighteenth century up to the present date. Based on new archival information, it provides exhaustive coverage of all UK and Irish chambers, as well as detailed examination of early Chambers in the U.S., including New York, Charleston, and Boston, and early Chambers in Quebec and Jamaica.
The book traces the importance of early tax protests and anger as motivating forces through interrelation with the American Revolution. It traces the emergence of service bundles, such commercial arbitration, coffee and reading rooms, and information and consultancy services as critical to the Chambers' unique market position. Some of the services had a unique status as trust goods, exploiting the chambers' USP as high status mutual non-profit organisations. It demonstrates the challenges for
the Chambers as independent voluntary bodies in increasing partnerships with governments and competition with rival institutions, and also gives critical overview of key lobbies, such as over the Jay Treaty, tax expansion, the Corn Laws, tariff reform and free trade, municipal socialism, and modern
regulatory burdens.
There is also extensive analysis of chamber membership and motivation, tracking changes in structure by firm size, sector and corporate and management structures. The growth of small firm membership, and the value of business networks and (in the early chambers) religious adherence, are shown as key mediums for recruitment, and maintaining commitment.
A definitive account of all local chambers including data appendices and detailed assessment of their significance, the book will be an enduring resource and foundation for research into the Chambers of Commerce's origins, historical development, and modern position.
Table of Contents
- 1. Local business voice and the chambers of commerce
- PART 1. ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
- 2. Historical overview
- 3. Forces of association
- 4. Concept and origins
- 5. Diffusion
- PART 2. STRUCTURAL TENSIONS
- 6. Resources, governance and management
- 7. Recognition and public status
- 8. National voice and local voice
- PART 3. ACTIVITIES
- 9. Early chamber voice
- 10. Voice from the Corn Laws to the twenty first century
- 11. Milieux for discourse and deliberation
- 12. Services
- 13. Partner and contractor to government
- PART 4. MEMBERS
- 14. Members and interests
- 15. Motives for membership
- 16. Dynamics of membership
- PART 5. THEN AND NOW
- 17. Then, now and the future
- ENDMATTER
- References:
- Local chamber histories
- General references
- Appendix A. Archive sources
- Appendix B. Data compilations and alignment
- Appendix C. Population and other data sources
by "Nielsen BookData"