Business Groups and Entrepreneurial Families in Southern Europe: Comparing Greek and Spanish Shipowners in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

This chapter aims at comparing and examining the origins and evolution of business groups in southern Europe, focusing on Spanish and Greek business groups originating from shipping from the late nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Within the European context Greece and Spain were late industrializing countries that experienced remarkable economic growth during the second half of the twentieth century. A modern shipping industry had emerged in both countries since the last quarter of the nineteenth century, with quite similar characteristics until the 1930s: Greeks and Spaniards became low cost tramp operators in the international market. However, after the mid-1930s, Spain became a minor player in the international shipping business while Greece became the leading shipping nation of the world.2 Notwithstanding these divergent paths of development, business groups and entrepreneurial families pervaded the shipping industry in both countries throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In fact, some of these have proved particularly resilient to changes in markets, technologies, governments and even political regimes.