Abstract: This book examines the history of British multinational trading companies from the eighteenth century to the present day. During the Industrial Revolution, British merchants established overseas branches that became major trade intermediaries and subsequently engaged in foreign direct investment. Complex multinational business groups emerged controlling large investments in natural resources, processing, and services in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. While theories of the firm predict the demise over time of merchant firms, this book identifies the continued resilience of British trading companies despite the changing political and business environments of the twentieth century. They ‘reinvented’ themselves in successive generations. The competences of the trading companies resided in their information-gathering, relationship-building, human resources, and corporate governance systems.

Keywords: Britain, business groups, corporate governance, firms, foreign indirect investment, merchants, multinationals, networks, services, trading company