Jaumain & Bertrams (eds), Patrons, gens d'affaires et banquiers, hommages à Ginette Kurgan-van Hentenryk, Bruxelles : Le Libre Timperman, 2004

Compte-rendu écrit pour la Business History Review par Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur

This Festschrift, en hommage à Ginette Kurgan-van Hentenryk, concentrates on a single subject, which makes it a contribution to the litterature on businessmen and entrepreneurs, mostly in late 19th and early 20th century Belgium. The subject is well chosen if one considers the career of G. Kurgan, who has been one of the main figures of Belgian business history in the last thirty years and edited a very useful Dictionnaire des patrons en Belgique (dictionnary of employers in Belgium) in 1996 (Bruxelles : De Boeck). The book actually includes a useful bibliography of Ginette Kurgan's publications, which occupies eleven pages.

The book gets started with an introduction by the editors, who put belgian business history in an international historiographic perspective, at the intersection between the chandlerian tradition and the socio-economic history of the european patronat as pionneered in the book edited by Maurice Lévy-Leboyer (Le patronat de la seconde industrialisation, Le Mouvement social, Paris, 1979). This introduction gives a good description of today's rich belgian historiographic landscape. After some remarks on the role of Ginette Kurgan, the article concludes with a brief presentation of the other papers in the book, whose authors have been selected for their relationships with G. Kurgan (a number of them have been her co-authors or students) and their inscription in the book's subject.
Except for a few papers, mostly thanks to the few foreign authors (F. Amatori, Y. Cassis, H.-G. Haupt, P. Lanthier), the book is entirely focused on belgian firms and bosses, and includes little international comparison. All papers are in French, with the exception of F. Amatori's contribution, in English. Most papers are quite traditionnal in their methods and perspectives, and make little explicit use of contemporary management, economic or sociological theory.

The book has five parts after the introduction. The first one on the premodern period (from classical Athens to the 18th century's corporations fits methodologically in the general perspective but suffers from spotting specific examples without much justification for their choice. A paper by D. Viviers discusses the production scale and the social position of Athenian ceramic manufactures. C. Deligne, C. Billen and D. Kusman analyse the social and economic position and the organisation of butchers in Brussels in the late Middle Ages. Ph. Moureaux and M. Galand present two cases of relationships between finance and politics in the Austrian Low-Countries of the 18th century. H.G. Haupt synthesises recent studies on the history of corporations in late 18th century Europe, arguing that they adapted much better and contributed much more to economic and social changes than has long been recognised.
The second part discusses the " structuration of the employers' milieu ", a title well illustrated by P. Lefèvre study of the coal producers' organization in Mons from 1830 to 1870. The paper by Valérie Piette tells the story of the creation of the Belgian Association of women employers in 1949. K. Bertrams's study of the development of business and engineer higher education in 19th century Belgium describes the organisation of engineers as a profesionnal group, but not that of employers. Other papers are more traditional industry studies, little interested on the employers as a group : this is the case of P. Van den Dungen's paper on the origins of daily commercial newspapers financed by advertising in 19th century Brussels, or of that by V. Pouillard on the advertiser's emergence, which is almost a general history of advertising in Belgium in the first half of the 20th century.
The third part deals with " performances, strategies and management of business firms ".
Y. Cassis presents his program of international comparison of firms performances, as measured by a rich set of variables. F. Amatori analyses the rise and decline of the Italian automobile company Lancia (1906-1969), focusing on strategic choices. G. Devos studies the evolution of Anvers dockers' organization in the long run, from medieval corporations to modern terminal operators. G. Vanthemsche studies the policy of the Société générale in the Belgian colony of Congo during the 1930s, especially how the bank tried, from 1928 onwards, to coordinate the action of its many subsidiaries. P. Lanthier examines the role of French businessmen in the French subsidiaries of the Empain group during the interwar period, showing that the Belgian control was effective but did not lead to the imposition of a particular business model.
The fourth part deals with the careers of specific businessmen. R. Depoortere discusses the situation of bankrupts businessmen in 19th century Belgium; showing from legal sources that they had more possibility of being restored in their dignity than usually thought. A. Morelli discusses the methodology of the study of immigrant employers. S. Jaumain presents a biography of Emile Bernheim, from CEO of the biggest Belgian department store to an apostle of peace and the union of Europe after 1945.
The last part, " employers and the community ", begins with a paper by E. Gubin and J. Puissant which discusses the ambiguities of the attitude of catholic employers vis-à-vis female employment in Belgium between 1840 and 1940. S. Tilman examines the links between bankers and politics, showing that the increasing perception of conflicts of interest led to self restriction by political parties in the 1930s. J. Gotowitch examines the evolution of the communists' attitude towards employers during the nazis' occupation. The book ends with three papers on the arts. One by Ch. Dupont on the relationships between employers and artists in 19th century Belgium. In the second, V. Montens presents the dedication of A. Stoclet to architecture and his exceptionnal talents as a " collectionneur " and an art patron. Endly, J.J. Heirwegh presents a well illustrated list and a first analysis of statues of Belgian employers
As a conclusion, this book presents a broad eclectic view of Belgian recent business history, but no general interpretative, theoretical or methodological novelty.