Companies that changed the world

"Companies that Changed the World" tells the fascinating stories of 50 joint-stock companies - or companies based on that model - that have exerted a critical influence on the social and economic history of the past four hundred years.

As well describing clearly and accessibly the companies' growth and influence over time, and profiling the pioneering entrepreneurs who built them, Jonathan Mantle's text is crammed with intriguing and unexpected information: from the role played by the humble pigeon in the history of news dissemination to how a pharmacist's five-cent patent medicine became the world's most powerful brand.

Each of the 50 companies profiled has changed - and reflected change in - the world of its time, in far-reaching and often unexpected ways.

Together, their stories amount to nothing less than a concise history of commerce and capitalism.