The resilience management of the Upper-German high finance in the process of commercialization: The Fugger, Imhoff, Paumgartner, Behaim and Rehlinger, c. 1530-1630
Final Report Abstract
Why do companies and entrepreneurs cope with crisis situations in such different ways that some benefit while others go bankrupt? An answer to this question can be provided by the concept of resilience, which describes the ability to cope with crisis situations. In the case of the study of resilience in companies, their resilience management is decisive, which describes all entrepreneurial activities of strengthening, preserving and using the resilience potential of a company, through which it should be made more resilient. As a rule, resilience management is oriented towards the long term, sometimes even across generations, and includes short-term crisis management. The project examines such resilience management using the example of Upper German family trading companies of the 16th century, a time of extreme change and upheaval in Europe. It shows the instruments and strategies that internationally engaged entrepreneurs such as Anton Fugger, Bartholomäus Welser or Ambrosius Höchstetter skilfully combined in order to adapt their trading companies to changing economic conditions in the wake of European expansion and commercialization in Europe as well as to survive specific disruptive situations in the best possible way. Resilience management can be understood as a corporate orientation towards long-term sustainable economic and business practices and as visionary planning for the future beyond one's own working and living time. In this context, the sheer size of a company is not at all decisive; from the perspective of resilience, smaller units are often, if not as a rule, more crisis-resistant and durable than (overly) large ones. In the course of the 16th century, the trend was away from large family trading companies and towards individual enterprises, which were the future of business in Central Europe for a good two centuries.
Publications
-
How to Make an Enterprise Resilient: Methodological Questions and Evidence from the Past. Strategies, Dispositions and Resources of Social Resilience, 163-182. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Denzel, Markus A.
-
Informationsmanagement und Medien des resiliencing in italienischen und oberdeutschen Unternehmen des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts, in: Annales Mercaturae 6, 19-62
Denzel, Markus A.
-
Bookkeeping as a ‘key technology’ of pre-modern commerce. Its relevance for the eco-nomic development in Europe. L’economia della conoscenza: innovazione, produttività e crescita economica nei secoli XIII-XVIII / The knowledge economy: innovation, productivity and economic growth, 13th to 18th century, 209-235. Firenze University Press.
Denzel, Markus A.
-
Der frühneuzeitliche Unternehmer als Akteur in „seiner Stadt. Die Fugger und Augsburg in der politisch-konfessionellen Krise des Schmalkaldischen Krieges, in: Schloms, Antje (Hg.), Reichsstädtische Akteure, Petersberg, 167-200
Isenmann, Mechthild
-
Resilienz-Management in Unternehmen im langen 16. Jahrhundert. Historische Resilienz-Forschung. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Denzel, Markus A.
