ABSTRACT
This journey through the history of an extensive population of the largest corporations in Italy and in Spain over more than fifty years allows us to observe the dynamics of big business in these two nations from a different perspective to previous studies, and helps to shed light onto the current situation in these countries. Thanks to this study of many large corporations and of their transformations over time at a micro level, it has been possible to identify some important protagonists within the Italian and Spanish economies and to investigate a wider, macro panorama that includes the political, economic and social implications of the existence of big business, providing some general insights into the type of capitalism that existed in these countries, and into the behavior of their large corporations.
