|
This is the second course of Specialisation 4: The Great Challenges: Crises, Inequality and Sustainability. All courses of this specialisation are in English.
LAS and TCS students who follow this course as part of the core curriculum of their major need to complete a compulsory preparation course/assignment.
Early Exit option (5 ECTS)
From a Western European perspective, the rise of global enterprise is a success story that begins with the establishment of the Dutch and English East India Companies around 1600. These giants of early capitalism allegedly paved the way for the creation of modern corporations. These corporations, in turn, changed the face of the world economy as they built multinational concerns with very large production facilities and global trade networks. But is this really a success story? In this course we will explore the history of Dutch multinationals from the VOC to Shell to answer this question. We will analyse the economic contribution of these big corporations in comparison to the much larger number of small and medium-sized enterprises, often owned by families instead of anonymous shareholders. We will also look for the damage the multinational corporations may have done to the world, through their careless handling of natural resources, their exploitation of workers, or their cornering of markets driving up prices to the disadvantage of global consumers. These are well-known criticisms, of course, but are they valid?
The course consists of three parts. In the first four weeks, students will study the historical literature about the development of corporate enterprise between 1600 and 2000. In weeks 5 through 8 students use primary and secondary sources to write a 4,000 words paper that explores the positive or negative impact of a particular Dutch business (e.g. a colonial company, an international merchant house, or a multinational corporation) on society. Students are free to choose sides, focusing for instance on technological progress, the growth of trade, and increased employment, or rather on human exploitation, the depletion of natural resources, or the abuse of market power.
|
 |
|