Entrepreneurs, formalization of social ties, and trustbuilding in Europe (fourteenth to twentieth centuries)

Titolo

Autore

GUIDO ALFANI

VINCENT GOURDON

Data

Agosto 1, 2012

Gestione dei diritti

Tipo

Journal Article

Author

GUIDO ALFANI

VINCENT GOURDON

Tipo documento

Journal Article

ISSN

0013-0117

Abstract Note

The establishment of trust is a key component of economic activity and social ties can make business dealings work better. However, we do not know much about how economic actors created new social ties deliberately in order to pursue their objectives. This article analyses the way in which merchants and entrepreneurs used specific rituals to establish formal social ties, with the intent of protecting their business relationships. It focuses on relational instruments that until now had been neglected, particularly godparenthood and marriage witnessing. It shows that formalization, ritualization, and publicity of ties were used by entrepreneurs to establish trust with their business associates, for example when information was asymmetric or when institutions were perceived as inefficient in guaranteeing mutual good behaviour. The analysis covers a long period, from the late middle ages to today. It pays particular attention to the consequences of the Reformation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and of the industrial revolution in the nineteenth. Contrary to the received wisdom, it suggests that formal social ties such as godparenthood continued to play an important role in economic activity during and after the industrial revolution. New databases on early modern Italy and nineteenth-century France are used.

Access Date

2014-08-24 21:04:51

Data

Agosto 1, 2012

Issue

Journal Abbreviation

The Economic History Review

Library Catalog

JSTOR

Pagine

1005-1028

Publication Title

The Economic History Review

Gestione dei diritti

Titolo

Entrepreneurs, formalization of social ties, and trustbuilding in Europe (fourteenth to twentieth centuries)

URL

http://www.jstor.org/stable/23271560

Volume

Attachment Title

JSTOR Full Text PDF

Collezione

BIbliografia Colonizzazioni interne

Citazione

GUIDO ALFANI e VINCENT GOURDON, “Entrepreneurs, formalization of social ties, and trustbuilding in Europe (fourteenth to twentieth centuries),” Colonizzazioni Interne e Migrazioni, accesso il 28 aprile 2025, http://storia.dh.unica.it/risorse_omc/items/show/1840.

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