ABSTRACT
In so far as industry valued the universities before the First World War, it was chiefly for their science and technology. There was also a further major change in the early 1900s as 'economies', once having gained a foothold, then spawned 'commerce' as yet a fresh development, placing economics within a wider and more practical context amid such subjects as accountancy, law, and languages. In particular the rise of accountancy called for a specific academic training which many university commerce courses included in their curricula. In Germany, the noted Handelshochschulen of Leipzig, Berlin, and Cologne played the same role for commerce as their technical high schools did for technology. The faculty of commerce at Birmingham University owed its origins to the demands of the business community of the city. The younger universities were trying to remove this reproach of the neglect of business by setting up faculties of economics and commerce and they recommended that Cambridge should do so too.
