ABSTRACT

The figure of the entrepreneur has become a relevant factor that explains the process of growth and economic development. Rising unemployment rates have generated among institutional and private agents, a significant interest in promoting entrepreneurship as a formula to eradicate this social scourge of unemployment. Active policies that favor business culture and initiative are being promoted in all areas. 

In the university world, academic research has multiplied the work on entrepreneurship, a term that includes a triple meaning: the figure of the entrepreneur, the business function and the creation of companies. This versatile meaning must be based on a consistent theory about the company and the entrepreneur. This book presents specific cases of companies and entrepreneurs that have had their role throughout the history of Spain. The intention is to show the techniques and learning acquired by those agents, which have allowed a considerable advance in the knowledge of the structure and business development. 

This book brings together the research carried out by its authors with primary sources and makes it accessible to a wide audience—Spanish and Latin American—and will be of value to researchers, academics, and students with an interest in Spanish entrepreneurship, business, and management history.

chapter 2|19 pages

Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Networks

The Development of Commercial and Financial Companies in Early Modern Castile

chapter 4|16 pages

Lacave & Echecopar

Strategies and Businesses in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

chapter 8|15 pages

The Private Period of Spanish Railways 1848–1941

A Liberal Project to Modernise Spain

chapter 12|15 pages

From the Sector to the Automobile Cluster of Castilla y León

Its Study through the History of Lingotes Especiales