ABSTRACT
One of the notable features of this book has been the shift in emphasis in the origins of management thought. Prior to the seventeenth century, new ideas about management – even if patchy and rather vague – could be found wherever there were centres of trade and economic power. Western Europe, the Arab world, India and China all contributed their fair share, and there was considerable cross-over between them; witness the remarkable adaptation of the ancient Daoist idea of non-action into the modern European notion of laissez-faire.
