Business History and the Buried Treasures of the Theory of Value

BUSINESS HISTORY IS ALWAYS SOMEWHAT tributary to the economic theories historians have been impregnated with. However objective or polemical they are deemed by their contemporaries, historians of business cannot avoid the unescapable: facts are 'theory laden'. The way evidence is selected, processed, digested, concocted, and elaborated remains connected to its previous conceptualizations about human activity, justice, and progress. Considering that businesses are economic institutions, it is appropriate to begin this review essay with two entirely different points of reference in economics: the neoclassical and Marxist traditions. Once under the spell of the neoclassical tradition (sometimes from early childhood), scholars contemplate diverse situations from the particular foci of conjunctural variations, concrete determinisms (such as geographic and technological factors), and, in the last instance, individual circumstances (behaviour, endowments, character, etc.). Ultimately, their conceptual point of entry into business history involves several assumptions about human nature with the corresponding visions of the decision-making process, the primary social role of businessmen, and the roots of value

Business history · Economics · Management · Statistics · Value (mathematics · Economic Theory and Institutions · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Mathematics · Political Economy and Marxism