At the Interface between Telling the History of the Firm and Business History. The Prague School of Economic History and its Path to Contemporary Business History

At the Interface between Telling the History of the Firm and Business History. The Prague School of Economic History and its Path to Contemporary Business History1 Eduard Kubů— Barbora Štolleová KEYWORDS: Methodology of business history— Czech Republic— Prague School of Economic History— Business history networks Business history is afield that has long been established in economically developed countries and is richly represented in research; it also has afoothold not only in the business and world of history, but also in the wider public. It has been gaining in popularity for more than two decades in the Czech Republic as well, although the conditions for its development are far from ideal. Business history in the Czech Republic is more or less institutionally “homeless”. Among both historical and economic departments, there is not asingle one that specializes exclusively in business history. They lack the defined habilitation and professorial procedures at universities that are standard in many economically developed countries of the West. There is no established publication space, whether for monographs or studies, reviews, and reports on developments at home and abroad, nor are there upcoming events and projects. Meetings of experts have so far been largely haphazard, depending on the projects being undertaken by individuals. Despite the above, research interest and the interest of the wider public in business history is steadily growing. The development of the business history in the Czech Republic is inextricably linked to the Prague School of Economic History, which formed and still forms one of its main pillars. The Prague School of Economic History is the name given to aresearch center, aloose grouping of economic historians centered around the Ústav hospodářských asociálních dějin (Institute of Economic and Social History, further as ÚHSD) at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague.2 It was constituted on the basis of close 1 This study was carried out at Charles University as part of the PROGRES Q09: Historie— Klíč kpochopení globalizovaného světa (PROGRES Q09: History— The Key to Understanding the Globalized World). It is an updated version of the text Eduard Kubů— Barbora Štolleová, Na cestě kmoderní business history. Dějiny podnikání vbadatelském poli pražské hospodářsko-historické školy (On the Way to Modern Business History. Business History in the Research Field of the Prague School of Economic History), Hospodářské dějiny/Economic History 35, 2020, no.1, pp.13–30. 2 Further reading Matěj Spurný— Barbora Štolleová, Institute of Economic and Social History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University (1993–2018), Prager wirtschaftsund sozialhistoOPEN ACCESS 70 WISOHIM/ESHP 31 cooperation with prestigious foreign departments in Cambridge, Vienna, Berlin and Frankfurt am Oder and includes an intersection of several generations of economic historians specializing in modern economic history. Its name was first used by the renowned Cambridge professor of economic history Alice Teichová. The historians who apply to this professional group deal with modern economic history from the late 18th century to the present day. They concentrate on the Bohemian lands in the context of European development, especially Central Europe. Their focus has been on topics of European significance, arising from the need to understand the continuities and discontinuities of economic developments in the 19th and 20th centuries, with an emphasis on economic and social transformation processes. In contrast to the descriptive-narrative interpretations that abounded in the past, the Prague School of Economic History emphasizes the analytical approach to research and is receptive to interdisciplinarity. Its core staff traditionally consists of the members of the Seminar of Economic History, ÚHSD of the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University, and historians collaborating on its institutional projects. An integral part of the “School” and the continuation of the field are students and graduates of master’s and doctoral programs. The aim of this contribution is to highlight what and how historians belonging to the Prague School have done in the field of business history in correlation with the development of Czech historiography. The focus of attention is exclusively on methodological instrumentarium; we do not aim at aholistic view of domestic historiography in the given section. That would have to be much broader, of course.3 The aim of the paper is to indicate in what ways it approaches and in what ways it diverges from the world business history discourse and to indicate its possibilities for further development (wishing to indicate aspecific path to modernity). CZECH/CZECHOSLOVAK TRADITION OF BUSINESS HISTORY Writing the history of enterprise or collective entrepreneurship has aspecific tradition in the Bohemian lands which dates back to the 19th century, when the Bohemian lands were part of the Habsburg monarchy. The earliest works dealt with the history of small and medium-sized money institutions, which gave birth to modern national Czech entrepreneurship, defining itself against the older national German or German-Jewish entrepreneurship. Among the important works published before the First World War, we should mention the history of the Živnostenská banka (Trades Bank) by its director Josef Horák, the business of Czech banks in the first decennia and during the First World War by Antonín Pimper.4 Horák and Pimper were people rische Mitteilungen / Prague Economic and Social History Papers 27, 2018, no.2, pp.7–34. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/120118 [cit.2021–10–5]. 3 Petr Popelka— Eduard Kubů— Barbora Štolleová, Podnikatelé českých zemí. Pokus ohistoriografickou bilanci (Entrepreneurs of the Bohemian Lands. An attempt at ahistoriographical balance), Český časopis historický 115, 2017, no.3, pp.731–755. 4 Josef Horák, Přehled vývoje českých obchodních bank (Overview of the Development of Czech Commercial Banks), Praha 1913; Antonín Pimper, České obchodní banky za války OPEN ACCESS EdUArd KUBů— BArBOrA ŠTOLLEOvá 71 of great knowledge, navigating in the midst of the action. They wanted to convey to the public the recent history of companies of national importance that contributed to the emancipation of Czech business. Although they also recall critical periods, these publications are essentially acelebration of the times in which they were created. In this respect, they are close to, although not authentically, jubilee promotional company pamphlets, which were acommon means of self-presentation for companies from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Professional historians in the former Czechoslovakia have only focused on corporate history since the 1950s, after the establishment of the communist regime. The main thread of their work, however, was not business as such. It was mainly focused on the nationalized state or cooperative enterprise and their production. The accents, in the spirit of the ideological demands of the time, were placed on the traditions of class struggles, i.e. the involvement of the company’s employees in the struggles “for abetter tomorrow” (expressed in the language of contemporary ideology). Such areduced conception lacked the discernment of business strategies, the movement of the firm on the competitive market, and the efficiency and performance of the enterprise. Adistorting mirror was held up to the image of the entrepreneur and manager. From an active agent bearing responsibility for the operation, performance, and development of the enterprise, he became an arrogant asocial exploiter appropriating workers’ and employees’ labor.5 The above is not to say that the historical works from the period before 1989 dealing with companies have no testimonial value today. Many of them were based on serious and comprehensive archival research, and their authors acted on the boundaries of what was possible and permissible under the communist regime.6 The years of the 1970s and 1980s slowly opened up the space for more circumspect case studies that left the ground of obligatory ideologized history and focused their attention on business in selected industries, regions, and the position of Czech companies on foreign markets. They began to notice the links between business and politics, whether domestic or international.7 It is no coincidence that the history of apo válce: Nástin vývoje zlet 1914–1928 (Czech Commercial Banks During the War and After the War: An Outline of Development from 1914–1928), Praha 1929. 5 Milan Myška, Business History in der Tschechischen Republik, In: Alice Teichová (ed.), Business History. Wissenschaftliche Entwicklungstrends und Studien aus Zentraleuropa, Wien 1999, pp.68–70; Václav Jíša, Dějiny závodů— programová vědecká disciplína (The History of Factories— aspecialized scientific discipline), Československý časopis historický 37, 1989, pp.16–43. 6 An example is the history of the ČKD: Josef Petráň— Vilém Fuchs, 90 let práce abojů: stručný přehled dějin ČKD Sokolovo, závodu národního podniku ČKD Praha [1871–1961] (90 Years of Work and Struggles: ABrief Overview of the History of ČKD Sokolovo, aPlant of the National Enterprise ČKD Praha [1871–1961]), Praha 1961; the history of the Baťa Concern: Bohumil Lehár, Dějiny Baťova koncernu [1894–1945] (History of the Baťa Concern [1894–1945]), Praha 1960; or the three-volume history of the Brno Zbrojovka: Otakar Franěk, Dějiny koncernu brněnské Zbrojovky (History of the Brno Zbrojovka Concern), part I–III, Brno 1969, 1970 and 1973. 7 Notable names include Antonín Klimek, Jan Janák, František Janáček, Zdeněk Sládek, Milan Myška, and Ctibor Nečas. OPEN ACCESS 72 WISOHIM/ESHP 31 business was virtually the exclusive domain of people with professional training as historians who lacked adeeper economic background; this established acontrast with developed Western countries that persists to this day. Aspecial chapter was the history of socialist enterprises, i.e. state-owned or collective cooperative enterprises. The collapse of the communist regime and the centrally planned economy in Czechoslovakia after the turn of the 1980s and 1990s formally freed up space for economic history and business history cultivated according to common and standard practice in Western Europe and overseas. The adaptation of economic historians and economic history was relatively fast, yet still slow. There was alack of adomestic base of case studies and methodological studies that would have fruitfully considered the application of foreign models and templates to the specifics of the Czech environment. The problem was the hesitant establishment of economic history as an independently cultivated academic discipline and the involvement in transnational professional networks (transnational projects, conferences, institutions). Czech/ Czechoslovak economic historians were busy at that time, working on anumber of topical issues, and understanding the nature and traditions of the development of economic life, past and present transformation processes, restitution, and replacement of “aryanized” Jewish property. In the published works related to the history of business, the professional mentality of business historiographers who were completely unable to break away from the old stereotypes of looking at acompany, lived on, even though the works were clearly de-ideologized. And there was another important factor, namely the minimal social demand. At the beginning of the 1990s, the concept of entrepreneurship and entrepreneur did not evoke positive connotations in the still mentally socializing Czech society.8 The birth of the Czech entrepreneurial elite was in many ways linked to the non-transparent practices at atime of legally insufficiently regulated privatization processes of “national”/state possessions. The number of works touching on entrepreneurs and the history of entrepreneurship, without explicitly referring to business history, increased during the 1990s.9 Old themes and approaches were transformed into more modern forms, and foreign inspirations grew in importance. The spectrum of topics is symptomatic of the following widely used research fields, most of which can now be described as traditional: The field of enterprises/firm/company history. The beginnings of the tradition date back to atime when history of enterprise was usually written without the ambition of examining business as such, and when works either lacked systematized economic data or provided it, but without the necessary analytical evaluation, i.e., understanding of the economic ratio of the firm. What before the fall of the com8 Eduard Kubů, Obraz české transformace vzrcadle sociologického výzkumu (The Image of Czech Transformation in the Mirror of Sociological Research), Historická sociologie 2011, no.1, pp.41–62. 9 P.Popelka— E.Kubů— B.Štolleová, Podnikatelé českých zemí. Pokus ohistoriografickou bilanci, pp.731–755. OPEN ACCESS EdUArd KUBů— BArBOrA ŠTOLLEOvá 73 munist regime at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s was an expression of the ideological limits of Czech/Czechoslovak historiography became a“professional vice” in the post-Soviet environment. Despite this, many of these works constitute an extremely useful and rich factual and informational reservoir. As an intersection of the old and the new, two volumes of the collectively prepared history of one of the most important engineering enterprises of the past and present, Škoda Works, from the 1990s, is worth mention.10 The novelty of both works was the modern structural elaboration of the concern perceived as astructured organism in adramatically changing historical context. The field of industrial regions. Aclassic field developed within economic history even before 1989 is the one of industrial regions. It grew out of the issue of the industrialization of the Bohemian lands as the industrial core of the Habsburg monarchy and focused on the development of individual key industries within the region, their modernization and technical-technological development. The history of the enterprises/companies/firms forming the region was an integral part of it, and the approach was descriptive, focusing on afew significant parameters, e.g. types of production, its structure, capacities of enterprises, numbers of employees, etc. The region that received the attention approved “from above” was the steel and coal “heart” of the Bohemian lands— the industrial region of northern Moravia and Silesia. The research between the 1960s and 1980s resulted in aseries of collective monographs.11 An innovative form of this approach is presented by Milan Myška’s work “Region aindustralizace” (Region and Industrialisation), dedicated to Silesia.12 The field focused on aspecific area of business. Afield with deep connections to the postwar (and even inter-war) period is asector-oriented historiography. It is linked to the previous field by the emphasis on technical-technological development. In contrast, the sector-oriented works deal in much greater depth with the economic roles of the enterprise and the importance of the industry within the national economy as awhole. Among the most prominent are the branches of agribusiness, textiles, glassmaking, sugar industry, brewing, and others. An example is the thematic series 10 František Janáček, Největší zbrojovka monarchie: Škodovka vdějinách, dějiny ve Škodovce 1859–1918 (The Largest Arms Factory of the Monarchy: the Škoda Works in History, History in the Škoda Works 1859–1918), Praha 1990; Vladimír Karlický et al., Svět okřídleného šípu: koncern: Škoda Plzeň 1918–1945 (The World of the Winged Arrow: the Škoda Plzeň Concern 1918–1945), [Plzeň] 1999. 11 Dan Gawrecki et al., Metodologické ametodické otázky výzkumu průmyslových oblastí za kapitalismu: soubor studií amateriálů (Methodological and Methodological Issues in Research of Industrial Areas Under Capitalism: ACollection of Studies and Materials), Opava 1981; Dan Gawrecki et al., Průmyslové oblasti českých zemí za kapitalismu. 1780–1945 (Industrial Areas of the Bohemian Lands Under Capitalism. 1780–1945), vol.1–2, Opava 1987 and 1991. 12 Milan Myška, Region aindustrializace. Studie kdějinám industrializace Slezska. 1800–1918 (Region and Industrialization. Studies on the History of Industrialization in Silesia. 1800–1918), Ostrava 2014. OPEN ACCESS 74 WISOHIM/ESHP 31 of publications “Zdějin textilu” (From the history of textiles).13 During the 1980s, athree-volume “Zdějin hutnictví vČeskoslovensku” (History of Iron Metallurgy in Czechoslovakia) was published.14 The 1990s were characterized by arenewed interest in the money sector, which resulted in the synthesis “Dějiny bankovnictví včeských zemích” (History of Banking in the Bohemian Lands”.15 If the earlier periods are the classic interpretation of the development of the field as awhole, the more recent periods, especially the part devoted to the interwar period, already take into account individual banks as market actors, thus methodologically approaching the modern concept of the business history. Business in the service sector is represented by research on tourism in the critical period of the Second World War.16 Field focusing on the entrepreneur as an actor in economic and social life, on entrepreneurship as asocial group, has its roots in Czechoslovakia before 1989 and afterwards grew into the widest and most frequently used field in our country. The contextualization of the entrepreneur as anational, political, social, cultural actor or patron usually strongly overlapped his role as an economic actor, especially as amanager running acompany. An elementary approach to the topic is the biographical approach, building on family roots, identity, and the socio-economic significance of the individual within society. The most significant project of this kind is the two-volume “Historická encyklopedie Čech, Moravy aSlezska” (Historical Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia) prepared by ateam of authors centered around Milan Myška.17 Another example is the encyclopedia of Brno entrepreneurs.18 Research on 13 Periodical series entitled: Zdějin textilu: Studie amateriály. Sborník příspěvků kdějinám textilní aoděvní výroby (From the History of Textiles: Studies and Materials. Proceedings of Contributions to the History of Textile and Clothing Production) was published in 1982–1988 (12 volumes in total). At the same time, the outputs of conference meetings were published. 1.setkání historiků textilního aoděvního průmyslu: protokol jednání vMostku ve dnech 23.–24.května 1985 (The 1st Meeting of Historians of Textile and Clothing Industry: Protocol of the meeting in Mostek on 23–24May 1985), Václav Rohlena (ed.), Zdějin textilu 4, Ústí nad Orlicí 1985; 2.setkání historiků textilního aoděvního průmyslu: Česká Skalice 14.–16.září 1987 (The 2nd Meeting of Historians of Textile and Clothing Industry: Česká Skalice 14–16September 1987), Zdějin textilu 9, Ústí nad Orlicí 1989, etc. 14 Collective of Authors, Dějiny hutnictví železa v Československu, vol. I–III, Praha 1984–1988. 15 František Vencovský et al, Dějiny bankovnictví včeských zemích, Praha 1999. On the money industry see also Jan Hájek— Vlastislav Lacina, Od úvěrních družstev kbankovním koncernům (From Credit Cooperatives to Banking Concerns), Praha 1999. 16 Ivan Jakubec— Jan Štemberk, Cestovní ruch pod dohledem Třetí říše (Tourism Under the Supervision of the Third Reich), Praha 2018. 17 Milan Myška et al, Historická encyklopedie podnikatelů Čech, Moravy aSlezska do poloviny XX. století (Historical Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia to the Mid-20th Century), vol.1–2, Ostrava 2003–2008. 18 Bohumír Smutný, Brněnští podnikatelé ajejich podniky 1764–1948. Encyklopedie podnikatelů ajejich rodin (Brno Entrepreneurs and their Enterprises 1764–1948. Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs and their Families), Brno 2012. OPEN ACCESS EdUArd KUBů— BArBOrA ŠTOLLEOvá 75 entrepreneurs in the modern era, which, like Myška, emphasizes the social dimensions of the entrepreneur, or entrepreneurship as asocial group, was brought about in short succession by projects under the leadership of Jiří Štaif, Eduard Kubů, and Drahomír Jančík at the ÚHSD, Faculty of Arts of the Charles University. This was research on entrepreneurship as an economic and social elite, or an actor of economic nationalism in abroad scope from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century.19 What may be an undeniable asset contributing to acomprehensive understanding of the personality/personalities from the perspective of economic, social, and cultural history may be amarginality lacking economic-analytical content from the perspective of business history. The field of methodology. In terms of methodology, Czech production on business history to date can be described as modest. Historiographical production after 1989 has outstripped the methodological preparation and proficiency necessary for modern systematic treatment of business history. Many of the works approaching the requirements for works in business history have been chosen and approached intuitively rather than as conceptually method-based. This is not true of entrepreneurship research, which was already areal research discourse in the Czech Republic in the 1990s.20 An outline of the methodological instrumentarium of world business history was made available to the Czech environment in avery useful handbook, the first of its kind in Czech historiography, by Jana Geršlová.21 Acontemporary understanding of family business history was brought by the 2017 thematic issue of the prestigious 19 Jiří Štaif (ed.), Moderní podnikatelské elity— metody aperspektivy bádání (Modern Business Elites— Methods and Perspectives of Research), Praha 2007; Eduard Kubů— Jiří Šouša (eds.), Finanční elity včeských zemích/ Československu 19.a20.století (Financial Elites in the Bohemian Lands/Czechoslovakia of the 19th and 20th Centuries), Praha 2008; Drahomír Jančík— Eduard Kubů (eds.), Nacionalismus zvaný hospodářský: střety azápasy onacionální emancipaci/převahu včeských zemích 1859–1945 (Nationalism Called Economic: Clashes and Struggles for National Emancipation/Superiority in the Bohemian Lands 1859–1945), Praha 2011; Eduard Kubů— Torsten Lorenz— Uwe Müller— Jiří Šouša (eds.), Agrarismus und Agrareliten in Ostmitteleuropa, Praha 2013. 20 Podnikatelstvo jako předmět historického výzkumu. Protokoly kolokvií, konaných ve dnech 2.–3.prosince 1992 a9.–10.prosince 1993 vOstravě (Entrepreneurship as an Object of Historical Research. Protocols of Colloquia Held on 2–3December 1992 and 9–10December 1993 in Ostrava), Ostrava 1994; Jiří Štaif (ed.), Moderní podnikatelské elity— metody aperspektivy bádání (Modern Business Elites— Methods and Perspectives of Research), Praha 2007; M.Myška et al, Milan Myška: zdíla hospodářského historika (Milan Myška: From the Works of an Economic Historian), Ostrava 2010; Jana Geršlová (ed.), Co by tomu řekl Johann Becher? Kulatý stůl kdějinám podnikání (What Would Johann Becher Say? Round Table on the History of Entrepreneurship), Praha 2010. 21 Jana Geršlová, Dějiny moderního podnikání (History of Modern Business), [Praha] 2012; cf. also Milan Myška, Problémy ametody hospodářských dějin: metodické problémy studia dějin sekundárního sektoru (Problems and Methods of Economic History: Methodological Problems in the Study of the History of the Secondary Sector), Ostrava 2010, pp.219–238. OPEN ACCESS 76 WISOHIM/ESHP 31 Český časopis historický (Czech Historical Journal),22 which seeks to transfer this concept and issue from developed countries and its application in the Czech environment. The development of the discourse on abroader research base was brought about by acollective monograph devoted to family business.23 If we summarize very briefly the development of research in the field of business history in the Czech Republic, we can talk about three research centers and several important individuals, authors of serious monographic treatises respecting the methodology of business history. First of all, we should mention the Centrum pro hospodářské asociální dějiny (Center for Economic and Social History) of the Faculty of Arts of Ostrava University, which benefits from the “legacy” of Milan Myška. It is certainly not an exaggeration to speak of the “Ostrava School” in business history. The profiling works of Aleš Zářický,24 Petr Popelka,25 and Michaela Závodná26 are among the most important. Acharacteristic feature of the “Ostrava School” is astrong regionalism focused on northern Moravia and Silesia, industrialization conceived as amodernization process, and afocus on large business families.27 The Ostrava center is loosely associated with Martin Jemelka and Ondřej Ševeček, who have long focused their attention on the Baťa factory towns.28 The second center is the Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín, which focuses mainly on the entrepreneurial activities of its founders, the world-famous Baťa family.29 The third center with along-term 22 Český časopis historický 115, 2017, no.3. 23 Milan Hlavačka— P.Bek et al., Rodinné podnikání vmoderní době (Family Business in Modern Times), Praha 2018. 24 Aleš Zářický, Rothschildové ati druzí. Dějiny velkopodnikání vRakouském Slezsku před první světovou válkou (The Rothschilds and the Others. The History of Big Business in Austrian Silesia before the First World War), Ostrava 2005. 25 Petr Popelka, Zrod moderního podnikatelstva. Bratři Kleinové apodnikatelé včeských zemích aRakouském císařství véře kapitalistické industrializace (The Birth of Modern Entrepreneurship. The Klein Brothers and Entrepreneurs in the Bohemian Lands and the Austrian Empire in the Era of Capitalist Industrialization), Ostrava 2011. 26 Michaela Závodná, Koleje aměsto. Problematika městské kolejové dopravy ve vybraných moravských aslezských městech 1850–1918 (Railways and the City. Issues of Urban Rail Transport in Selected Moravian and Silesian Cities 1850–1918), České Budějovice— Ostrava 2016. 27 For acloser look at the “Ostrava School” see Petr Popelka— E.Kubů— B.Štolleová, Podnikatelé českých zemí, Český časopis historický 115, 2017, no.3, pp.746–747. 28 Ondřej Ševeček, Zrození Baťovy průmyslové metropole: továrna, městský prostor aspolečnost ve Zlíně 1900–1938 (The Birth of Baťa’s Industrial Metropolis: Factory, Urban Space and Society in Zlín 1900–1938), České Budějovice 2009; Ondřej Ševeček— Martin Jemelka (eds.), Company Towns of the Baťa Concern. History— Cases— Architecture, Stuttgart 2013; Martin Jemelka— Ondřej Ševeček, Tovární města Baťova koncernu. Evropská kapitola globální expanze (Factory Towns of the Baťa Concern. European Chapter of Global Expansion), Praha 2016. 29 Among the rich production, we should mention at least the works of Zdeněk Pokluda, e.g. Zdeněk Pokluda, Baťovi muži (Baťa’s Men), Zlín 2012 or Marek Tomaštík (Marek Tomaštík OPEN ACCESS EdUArd KUBů— BArBOrA ŠTOLLEOvá 77 focus on business history is the ÚHSD of the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University, with which the Prague School of Economic History is associated (see below). In addition to the above, several prominent solitary scholars from various institutions, such as the Historical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Masaryk Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, work on the history of business and entrepreneurship. We mention Milan Hlavačka, whose series of publications on the history of the Ringhoffers can serve as one of the exemplary ones in many respects.30 CURRENT BUSINESS HISTORY AND THE PRAGUE SCHOOL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY The Prague School of Economic History has naturally evolved in its approach to business history. Modern business history was introduced into research activities and teaching work at the ÚHSD of the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University in the late 1990s by Jaroslav Pátek. In its understanding and way of working in relation to business history, the Prague School of Economic History has gradually profiled itself as follows: Business history is perceived as an autonomous sub-discipline of economic history. This stems, among other things, from the fact that business history in the Czech Republic does not yet have, as mentioned in the introduction, an independent institutional anchorage. The Prague School of Economic History is striving to closely link it with other subdisciplines that are slowly separating from general economic history, such as the history of science and technology, the history of transport, and especially the history of consumption. It emphasizes the exploration of entrepreneurial roots and traditions as ameans of knowing and understanding the past, as well as aselfevident and useful component of the present and future. I. SUBJECT OF InTErEST I. 1. The Prague School of Economic History is committed to the roots of business history as constituted in the West from the late 1930s to the present. Its main thread in the field of business history has been the examination of the economic functions of an enterprise. It builds on the approach of the founders of the field in the 1930s who identified the goal of the field as the study of the enterprise as afunctional unit in the (ed.), Tomáš Baťa— doba aspolečnost: sborník příspěvků ze stejnojmenné zlínské konference, pořádané ve dnech 30.listopadu— 1.prosince 2006 (Tomáš Baťa— Time and Society: Proceedings of the Zlín Conference of the Same Name, Held on 30November— 1December 2006), Brno 2007. 30 Milan Hlavačka— Pavel Bek, Ringhofferové: rodina apodnikání (Ringhoffers: Family and Business), Praha 2019; Milan Hlavačka— Miloš Hořejš et al., Fenomén Ringhoffer: rodina, podnikání, politika (The Ringhoffer Phenomenon: Family, Business and Politics), Praha 2021. OPEN ACCESS 84 WISOHIM/ESHP 31 came into the field of view of Czech economic historians, gathered around the ÚHSD of the Faculty of Arts in Prague, in the 1990s. In recent years, events associated with the activities of the European Business Historians’ Association (EBHA) have made asignificant impact on research in this area. Central and Eastern European issues were represented at the World Congress of Business History in Bergen in 2016, and three years later, in October 2019, Polish colleagues from Kozminski University in Warsaw, together with the EBHA, initiated an international workshop devoted to this field.52 Business history in aCentral and Eastern European perspective also appeared as atopic of its own at the XIX World Congress of Economic History in Paris (2022). Among the questions posed were the specifics in the characteristics and development of businesses/enterprises in this area in the 19th and 20th centuries, the disparities in comparison with the experience of Western Europe and, consequently, the world. An expression of the Prague School of Economic History’s approach to the history of business in its contemporary conception and an expression of an effort to somehow systematize research and coordinate with other research centers and individual researchers was the organization of aworkshop entitled “Business History in Central Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Sources— Methods— Interpretation” held in October 2020 in cooperation between the ÚHSD of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and the Society for Economic and Social History of the Czech Republic (Společnost pro hospodářské asociální dějiny České republiky). The publication output of the workshop is essentially in the form of amonograph. The collection of more than 20 texts, accompanied by an introductory study and areflection on the future direction of the discipline, is spread over three consecutive volumes of Hospodářské dějiny/Economic History. Each of them has its own thematic definition. Volume 1/2020 focuses on issues of approaches and methods, volume 2/2020 contains the case studies presented at the workshop, and the last volume, 3/2020, presents adiscussion of the possibilities and limits of the source base of business history in the Czech Republic. The workshop held in autumn 2020 was intended as afeedback loop to the historian’s community. The papers presented there, and the subsequent debate, undeniably brought interesting and novel topics and new insights to the discourse. Aloose continuation of the efforts of the ÚHSD of Faculty of Arts at the Charles University to develop business history is the international scientific conference organized in cooperation with the National Technical Museum in Prague entitled “Podnikatel versus kapitál— Kapitál versus podnikatel. Dvě tváře jednoho vztahu ve střední Evropě 19.a20.století” (Entrepreneur versus Capital— Capital versus Entrepreneur. Two Faces of One Relationship in Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries) organized for October 2022. The scope of the proposed conference is an analysis aimed at understanding the relationship of larger, smaller, and even small business entities to money institutions and vice versa. It calls for topics such as History. Vědecký obor mezi historií aekonomií (Business History. The Scientific Field Between History and Economics), Český časopis historický, 115, 2017, no.3, p.720. 52 First World Congress of Business History, Bergen, 25–27August 2016; Workshop on Business History in Central & Eastern Europe, Warsaw, 25–26October 2019. OPEN ACCESS EdUArd KUBů— BArBOrA ŠTOLLEOvá 85 family financial strategies, collective savings (self-help), lending, industry-bank relations, foreign investment, etc., in order to contribute to the understanding of the strategies and behavior of the entrepreneur (manager) in the heavily undercapitalized economy of Central Europe. On the basis of these initiatives the authors of the study express their hope that business history in the Czech Republic will continue to develop dynamically. OPEN ACCESS