ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a book project initiated in the mid-1970s by Erik Elinder, a charismatic entrepreneur and owner of the Swedish credit card company ContoFöretagen. Commissioned book projects had been carried out within the university also before. However, economic historian Ulf Olsson describes a veritable upsurge of such projects from the mid-1970s, many of them initiated by the Wallenberg group. However, the case of the book project on “The Right to Credit” differs from the Ericsson book and other corporate history writing of the time. The economic valuation of knowledge is clearly spelled out. The book project would in the following years cost way more than 100,000 SEK, including more than 15 months of salary and a long research trip to the United States for the authors. Writing the history of consumer credit and credit cards in Sweden and working with both historical and contemporaneous material seemed a path breaking project.
