Series Editors' Preface

Summary

The story of business history within European integration has just begun to be written amidst a shift in the literature identifying the importance of business and economic interests rather than political ones in the process. There has been until now no reliable historical study of the policies of British business towards European integration. Given the importance of British business in the global economy and the new European system, we welcome this addition to the literature and to our series, Cambridge Studies in the Emergence of Global Enterprise.

Here you will find an account based on rich research in the extensive British government records held in that country's National Archives and the records of the key peak association, the FBI. Professor Rollings uses these and other archives to develop the first serious account of how, exactly, British business adapted to the challenges of integration. The book presents much information that is new and integrates the archival evidence with the relevant secondary literature in English and several other languages in history, political science, management, and economics. The coverage is indeed comprehensive. This is an authoritative economic and business history that helps us understand the twists and turns of political economy in an era when a new European system was emerging.