massive realization has lately been interested by the significance of social networks and company tradition in decreasing transaction bills, either within the pre-industrial interval and through the 19th century. This e-book brings jointly twelve unique contributions by way of students within the uk, continental Europe, and North the USA which symbolize vital and leading edge learn in this subject. They hide extensive subject matters. First, the position of commercial tradition in picking out advertisement good fortune, specifically the significance of familial, spiritual, ethnic and associational connections within the operating lives of retailers and the impression of industrial practices on relations lifestyles. moment, the broader institutional and political framework for enterprise operations, specifically the connection among the political economic climate of exchange and the cultural international of retailers in an period of transition from own to company buildings. those key topics are constructed in 3 separate sections, every one with 4 contributions. They concentration, in flip, on the function of tradition in construction and protecting companies; the interaction among associations, networks and gear in settling on advertisement luck or failure; and the importance of religion and the family members in influencing enterprise recommendations and the course of service provider company. the broader historiographical context of the person contributions is mentioned in a longer introductory bankruptcy which units out the final schedule of the booklet and offers a broader comparative framework for analysing the explicit concerns lined in all the 3 sections. Taken jointly the gathering bargains a tremendous addition to the to be had literature during this box and should allure a large readership among enterprise, cultural, maritime, financial, social and concrete historians, in addition to ancient anthropologists, sociologists and different social scientists whose learn embraces a longer-term perspective.