ABSTRACT
The business sectors examined here are those which ourished in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the economies of Europe, Japan and the USA. The basic setting was one where market transactions and private capital markets came to dominate economic activities. In such a context, the state (i.e government) was an expression of collective action whether at local or central level. Two basic questions thereby arise and form the leitmotif of this chapter. Firstly, what did businesses want from governments? Secondly, how far did governments meet those wants and what other pressures prompted government to intervene in the activities of business rms?
