All just for profit?
The history of businesses from ancient times to the present outlines the components and objectives of these organisations.
For profit (always), but not only that: understanding why and how businesses are created is fundamental to understanding the culture behind and within them. The humanity that must be sought in every instance is a humanity dense in its history, its victories and its defeats. It is a humanity that, on occasion, has made “great history” but also a lowlier history, and which truly builds the present and the future. Reading For Profit: a History of Corporations by William Magnuson, just proposed once more in Italy, serves precisely to understand more about the relationships between profit and other objectives that have almost always given rise to businesses.
In particular, the book is a history of the birth of corporations, their evolution and the role they have played and continue to play in shaping the world and our way of thinking. And it’s not just about the economic aspects. William Magnuson traces the journey of ‘corporations’ over the centuries: from the great buildings of ancient Rome to the ships of the British East India Company, to the rails built by the Union Pacific Railroad Company to cross North America; from oil multinationals in the Middle East to today’s Silicon Valley giants. Magnuson’s narrative begins before the birth of Christ and continues to the present day, offering examples that immediately illuminate the role of companies. A few examples are enough to illustrate this. In 215 BC, the Roman army risked collapsing in the face of the Carthaginian advance. It fell to a handful of wealthy citizens, united in societates – the first companies in history – to save the troops and the Republic. They supplied the soldiers with clothes, cereals and equipment, thus turning the tide of the conflict. In the first half of the 15th century, under the leadership of Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, the Banco Medici became the most important company in Europe, capable of influencing wars, truces and treaties thousands of kilometres away. In May 2012, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s company that will become Meta, went public. In 2018, it was accused of influencing the elections that led to Donald Trump becoming President of the United States.
Profit, therefore, but also other objectives have animated and animate production organisations and the men who design, build and manage them. Magnuson then recounts the fate of bankers, explorers, pirates, businessmen and digital entrepreneurs in the grey area that exists between personal interest and common welfare. And it is precisely the swing of the pendulum between these two extremes that leads the book to describe successes and failures in doing business but also, of course, the role of profit.
Profitto. Storia delle grandi aziende dall’antica Roma a Meta
William Magnuson
il Saggiatore 2024
The history of businesses from ancient times to the present outlines the components and objectives of these organisations.
For profit (always), but not only that: understanding why and how businesses are created is fundamental to understanding the culture behind and within them. The humanity that must be sought in every instance is a humanity dense in its history, its victories and its defeats. It is a humanity that, on occasion, has made “great history” but also a lowlier history, and which truly builds the present and the future. Reading For Profit: a History of Corporations by William Magnuson, just proposed once more in Italy, serves precisely to understand more about the relationships between profit and other objectives that have almost always given rise to businesses.
In particular, the book is a history of the birth of corporations, their evolution and the role they have played and continue to play in shaping the world and our way of thinking. And it’s not just about the economic aspects. William Magnuson traces the journey of ‘corporations’ over the centuries: from the great buildings of ancient Rome to the ships of the British East India Company, to the rails built by the Union Pacific Railroad Company to cross North America; from oil multinationals in the Middle East to today’s Silicon Valley giants. Magnuson’s narrative begins before the birth of Christ and continues to the present day, offering examples that immediately illuminate the role of companies. A few examples are enough to illustrate this. In 215 BC, the Roman army risked collapsing in the face of the Carthaginian advance. It fell to a handful of wealthy citizens, united in societates – the first companies in history – to save the troops and the Republic. They supplied the soldiers with clothes, cereals and equipment, thus turning the tide of the conflict. In the first half of the 15th century, under the leadership of Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, the Banco Medici became the most important company in Europe, capable of influencing wars, truces and treaties thousands of kilometres away. In May 2012, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s company that will become Meta, went public. In 2018, it was accused of influencing the elections that led to Donald Trump becoming President of the United States.
Profit, therefore, but also other objectives have animated and animate production organisations and the men who design, build and manage them. Magnuson then recounts the fate of bankers, explorers, pirates, businessmen and digital entrepreneurs in the grey area that exists between personal interest and common welfare. And it is precisely the swing of the pendulum between these two extremes that leads the book to describe successes and failures in doing business but also, of course, the role of profit.
Profitto. Storia delle grandi aziende dall’antica Roma a Meta
William Magnuson
il Saggiatore 2024