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We develop the concept of the slave-trade balance of payments and generate its table for the United States for 1790–1860. In the process, we construct new data for the slave trade, including both the physical movement and revenue figures, and we analyze these numbers. The balance of payments includes slave imports, carrying trade in slaves, purchases of slaves that fail to be imported, outfitting and provisioning slave ships, and slave-ship sales. The slave-trade balance is integrated into the standard balance of payments. Among the findings are the following: slave imports were dominated by natural growth except for one decade; US ships had the greater role than foreign ships in the import trade, but were of small—and eventually nil—consequence in the carrying trade; federal and state laws to prohibit the slave trade in all its aspects were generally effective; and the slave-trade balance of payments was a small component of the overall balance.

This paper examines the calculative practices used by the Slave Compensation Commission to value a slave for the purposes of compensating slave owners on the abolishment of slavery across the British colonies in 1833. It contributes to accounting research in the field of valuation, particularly to understanding the practices of valuing human life.

The methodology is primarily archival and draws on the records of the Slave Compensation Commission held at the British National Archives (Kew).

The paper makes two contributions to the literature. Firstly, it contributes to the valuation studies literature by suggesting the significance of understanding the practice of valuation as a product of the dynamics of strategic action fields (Fligstein and McAdam, 2012). Secondly, it contributes to the theory of strategic action fields by revealing the role of calculative technologies in supporting the organizational apparatus of valuation within the Slave Compensation Commission, and therefore suggests the powerful role of accounting in stabilizing a strategic action field.

The paper provides novel insights into the monetary commensuration of life and the role of calculative technologies in that valuation process.

The purpose of this paper is to expose the pattern and mechanism of Roman private enterprise as the rudimentary form of capitalistic business.

By means of historical analysis and theoretical reconstruction, the author retraces the background and foundations of business through slave as the initial stage of private enterprise.

A comprehensive view of public and private entrepreneurship at the end of Republic and the beginning of Empire is presented. The riddle of “unnaturally” dear slaves in Rome (as compared with free labor and slaves in other countries of antiquity) is scrutinized. It is shown that “excessively” high demand for them was largely determined by their institutional worth: thanks to dominica potestas, they appeared to be the key organizational resource for expanding private industrial business. The framework of private enterprise securing limited liability for owner and turning “business slave” into a kind of director is brought to light.

The results of this research allow historians to retrace the origins of modern private enterprise to classical antiquity, while economists and managers get an opportunity to better understand its nature and organizational status of those owning and managing it.

Leaders and executives can draw from the paper an object lesson of how, remaining within the existing political system, legal regulation and economic traditions, to make a radical innovation whose true meaning and social potential are so immense and far-reaching that get evident only many centuries later. The findings and conclusions the author comes to may be used in educational courses on economics, entrepreneurship, management, business history and so on.

An instructive model of conciliation of interests is scrutinized. “Directors” – those organizing and managing a business but not owning it – were, as well as workers, recruited by coercion and legal regimentation of their relations with proprietors. The polarization of their institutional roles was at the bottom of private enterprise from the very outset. The state created incentives for initiative and competent business men in subjection to well-offs to work hard, on one hand, and made their masters to use these incentives to public and their own profits. The benefits of all parties were taken into account, though, of course, not to the same degree. Thereby, a kind of social compromise embodied in a novel institution was attained to.

This paper is the first to demonstrate in relief the background and framework of Roman private enterprise as well as the functions and organizational status of its “director.”

Scholars have long emphasized that the Lower South was one of the most economically successful regions of British North America. The region had the highest levels of private wealth per capita in the colonies by 1774, and it has been argued that income per capita rose rapidly due to the rapid growth of rice exports. Here we present new and more comprehensive estimates of the region's exports, which reveal a different result. While exports grew rapidly, they grew slower than rice and indigo alone, and slower than population. Here we explain why the extensive growth of exports and population did not lead to rapid growth of income per capita.

Of any group of ancient or medieval thinkers it is the Talmudic writers who came closest to the thought world of the modern human capital theorists. The only other group which might be considered in this regard is the one comprising the jurists of ancient Rome. However, the insights of the jurists were confined to the context of discussion of damages with respect to sales of slave capital. The rabbis, by contrast, ranged beyond the question of damages. Furthermore, they employed human capital concepts in the examination of issues relating to free persons as well as slaves. There were three main points of departure for Talmudic debate in the field of human capital analysis. One of these was the biblical account, in the book of Exodus, of the construction of the Tabernacle. Another was the problem of estimation of appropriate compensation in cases of physical and psychological injury. A third involved attempts at the valuation of human life, which were evoked by the section of the book of Leviticus which deals with the dedication of persons to the sanctuary.

This study examines the long-term trends in wages of skilled and unskilled construction workers in Constantinople-Istanbul, and to a lesser extent in other urban centers in the Near East and the Balkans from about 1100 until the present. It also compares long-term trends in eastern Mediterranean wages with those elsewhere in Europe. Two events had significant and long-lasting impacts on urban real wages around the eastern Mediterranean during the last millennium: the Black Death and modern economic growth. The available price and wage data also point to the existence of a gap in urban real wages between northwestern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean during the first half of the sixteenth century.

It is by now a foregone conclusion that the Talmudic sages possessed a remarkable knowledge and understanding of highly sophisticated economic laws and practices. In fact, as far back as 1911, the eminent economist and scholar, Werner Sombart, had expressed his deep admiration for their high degree of economic sophistication and keen insight when he wrote:

High school student achievement in economics has been predominantly characterized by low test scores, while secondary social studies preservice teachers have less formal training in economics than most other social studies disciplines. In this self-study, the instructional affordances and constraints of an experimental economics methods course are analyzed in terms of developing secondary social studies preservice and inservice teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in economics from both the instructor and pre and inservice teachers’ perspectives. Two course assignments appeared to most notably develop PCK in economics, the Analysis of Economic Events and the Active-Learning, Interdisciplinary Economic Lesson. Findings suggest interrelationships exist among common content knowledge, specialized content knowledge, and horizon content knowledge for teaching economics. Implications and instructional suggestions for social studies teacher education and professional development are discussed.

Globalisation plays a major role in the existence and persistence of modern slavery, one of the most extreme examples of human rights abuses in recorded history. This paper aims to explore how multinational enterprises (MNEs), as central players in international business (IB) activities, relate to modern slavery. This paper focusses on human rights–minded MNEs and investigates their narratives and proactive approaches to tackling modern slavery.

This study conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with managers and consultants with substantial knowledge on the topic. This study also gained insights from a business conference on modern slavery organised by a New Zealand ministry in 2021.

This study identified four MNE narratives and three approaches to responding to modern slavery.

This paper discusses the challenges faced by MNEs when addressing modern slavery and outlines the relevant implications for MNE managers.

The scholarly conversation on modern slavery in the field of IB is in its infancy. This paper offers an account of how MNEs deal with modern slavery. In addition, while most studies take a critical angle and focus on problems, this study focusses on progressive and human rights–minded MNEs.