Ron Harris is professor of legal history and former dean of law at Tel Aviv University. He is the author of Industrializing English Law.
A historical look at the early evolution of global trade and how this led to the creation and dominance of the European business corporation
Before the seventeenth century, trade across Eurasia was mostly conducted in short segments along the Silk Route and Indian Ocean. Business was organized in family firms, merchant networks, and state-owned enterprises, and dominated by Chinese, Indian, and Arabic traders. However, around 1600 the first two joint-stock corporations, the English and Dutch East India Companies, were established. Going the Distance tells the story of overland and maritime trade without Europeans, of European Cape Route trade without corporations, and of how new, large-scale, and impersonal organizations arose in Europe to control long-distance trade for more than three centuries.
Ron Harris shows that by 1700, the scene and methods for global trade had dramatically changed: Dutch and English merchants shepherded goods directly from China and India to northwestern Europe. To understand this transformation, Harris compares the organizational forms used in four major regions: China, India, the Middle East, and Western Europe. The English and Dutch were the last to leap into Eurasian trade, and they innovated in order to compete. They raised capital from passive investors through impersonal stock markets and their joint-stock corporations deployed more capital, ships, and agents to deliver goods from their origins to consumers.
Going the Distance explores the history behind a cornerstone of the modern economy, and how this organizational revolution contributed to the formation of global trade and the creation of the business corporation as a key factor in Europe's economic rise. "Various parts of his [Harris'] oeuvre can be fruitfully utilized to build a new approach, integrating the humanities with social and economic studies."---Carlo Taviani, Journal of Early Modern History "This is essential reading for business history, trade history, and organizational theory."---M. Chaiklin, Choice "Going the distance brings a novel view of institutions, as it opens the black box and studies the functioning of organizational forms of business using insights from legal studies and economy. . . . This book is an essential read for anyone interested in long-distance trade and its organization, as well as for economic and legal historians focusing on institutional analysis. . . . It brings new insights into methodological approaches for the study of the migration and transplantation of institutions."---Karolina Hutková, Economic History Review "A truly remarkable work of profound scholarship, destined to become a classic. Each micro-study is carefully crafted, mastering well both the specific elements pertaining to it and the way they relate to the bigger picture. . . . A genuine pleasure to read."---Guido Rossi, Edinburgh Law Review "A major academic achievement-certainly one of the most significant contributions to the history of business organizations published over the past decade. It manages to be both highly useful and profoundly challenging to other scholars at the same time. It will likely serve as one of the field's cornerstones for many years to come. The phrase "this is a must-read book" is abused all too often in academic book reviews, but in all seriousness and sincerity, this is a must-read book for anyone with even a passing intellectual interest in the business corporation."---Taisu Zhang, Journal of Economic History "Nourished by extensive research and reflection, matured through a long intellectual journey with the necessary broad focus, [Going the Distance] advances original theses and provides stimulating examples. The merits of Ron Harris' work are numerous, including unimpeachable rigour, and it is difficult to illustrate the cultural richness of
