Economic Groups in Portugal during the Estado Novo
Economic Groups in Portugal during the Estado Novo
This project has two main objectives. The first is to reconstitute the process of creation and development of the business groups born in Portugal during the Estado Novo period. In that period Portugal acquired a firm structure that was different from the one existing until then but also from the one existing afterwards. It is certainly of interest to know why, between the 1930s and the 1970s, the Portuguese firm structure went beyond the small size that is traditional in the country and evolved in the direction of large business groups.
One of the essential features of those groups was their large scale. Certain estimates point towards a turnover of the largest business groups in 1974 (the CUF Group, the Champalimaud Group, the Espírito Santo Group, the Banco Português do Atlântico, the Banco Borges & Irmão, the Banco Fonsecas & Burnay and the Banco Nacional Ultramarino) representing about 75% of GDP. The CUF Group, for instance, was ranked among the 200 largest business groups in Europe in the early 1970s and was the largest in the Iberian Peninsula.
The topic has additional important implications for economic policy. The Estado Novo is known for its high degree of intervention in the economy, and consequently those groups grew associated with that intervention. Through industrial conditioning, the policies of the Estado Novo not only limited the entry of firms in the various industrial markets, but also favored the creation of oligopolistic or monopolistic markets.
The second objective of the project is to investigate whether the creation of this entrepreneurial structure gave any specific contribution to the process of economic growth taking place in Portugal during the Estado Novo period. As is known, this period (in particular between the 1950s to 1973) was that of the fastest growth of the Portuguese economy in the country's entire history (see Amaral, 2003). Moreover, there is a developed international discussion on the connection between the support of the State, the development of business groups and economic growth, based mostly on the classical cases of Japan, the East Asian countries, Latin American countries, the authoritarian regimes of the interwar period and the mixed economy democracies of the postwar period.
The team assembled for this project is particularly appropriated to the effort. The Principal Investigator, Álvaro Ferreira da Silva, is co-editor of a leading work in Portuguese historiography (Lains and Silva, 2005), and has various studies on entrepreneurial history, some of them directly related to the topics of this project (as Silva, forthcoming). Jaime Reis is a proeminent author in modern Portuguese economic historiography. Among his works on wide-ranging topics, of particular relevance for the themes dealt with in this project are his works on financial firms, such as the Bank of Portugal (Reis, 1996) and Caixa Geral de Depósitos (Reis, 1997). Joaquim da Costa Leite has recently become interested in the problems dealt with in this project, with particular attention to the interdisciplinary dimension between economics, management and history (Leite, 2006). Luciano Amaral has focused his research on the comparative study of Portuguese economic growth, in his Doctoral dissertation (Amaral, 2003) and in other works on economic growth in the postwar period (e.g. Amaral, 2009a and 2009b). Pedro Neves has devoted his research to business history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In his Docotral dissertation (Neves, 2007), he has studied the 50 largest Portuguese industrial firms between 1880 and World War I.
The promotors of the project expect to present its findings in conferences and leading journals, both national and international. They also expect to offer the scientific community and the greater public a series of objects or services of interest: a prosopographical data set of entrepreneurs, managers and political decision-makers during the period of the Estado Novo; a bibliographical database on business history in Portugal to be made available online; a database of Portuguese firms to be made available online; a dictionary of Portuguese managers, entrepreneurs and firms in the twentieth century; histories of firms and groups.
The project will bring a very important contribution to the study of various aspects of Portuguese economic history in general and of the Estado Novo period in particular. The vast ignorance on this period's business groups underscores the fact that much remains to be done in order to have a complete picture of the Portuguese economy in the twentieth century. Whoever wishes to better understand the reasons for the notable process of economic growth in the Estado Novo period needs the information that this project will provide.
Business Historical; Business Groups; Institutions; Economic Growth
This project has two main objectives. The first is to reconstitute the process of creation and development of the business groups born in Portugal during the Estado Novo period. In that period Portugal acquired a firm structure that was different from the one existing until then but also from the one existing afterwards. It is certainly of interest to know why, between the 1930s and the 1970s, the Portuguese firm structure went beyond the small size that is traditional in the country and evolved in the direction of large business groups.
One of the essential features of those groups was their large scale. Certain estimates point towards a turnover of the largest business groups in 1974 (the CUF Group, the Champalimaud Group, the Espírito Santo Group, the Banco Português do Atlântico, the Banco Borges & Irmão, the Banco Fonsecas & Burnay and the Banco Nacional Ultramarino) representing about 75% of GDP. The CUF Group, for instance, was ranked among the 200 largest business groups in Europe in the early 1970s and was the largest in the Iberian Peninsula.
The topic has additional important implications for economic policy. The Estado Novo is known for its high degree of intervention in the economy, and consequently those groups grew associated with that intervention. Through industrial conditioning, the policies of the Estado Novo not only limited the entry of firms in the various industrial markets, but also favored the creation of oligopolistic or monopolistic markets.
The second objective of the project is to investigate whether the creation of this entrepreneurial structure gave any specific contribution to the process of economic growth taking place in Portugal during the Estado Novo period. As is known, this period (in particular between the 1950s to 1973) was that of the fastest growth of the Portuguese economy in the country's entire history (see Amaral, 2003). Moreover, there is a developed international discussion on the connection between the support of the State, the development of business groups and economic growth, based mostly on the classical cases of Japan, the East Asian countries, Latin American countries, the authoritarian regimes of the interwar period and the mixed economy democracies of the postwar period.
The team assembled for this project is particularly appropriated to the effort. The Principal Investigator, Álvaro Ferreira da Silva, is co-editor of a leading work in Portuguese historiography (Lains and Silva, 2005), and has various studies on entrepreneurial history, some of them directly related to the topics of this project (as Silva, forthcoming). Jaime Reis is a proeminent author in modern Portuguese economic historiography. Among his works on wide-ranging topics, of particular relevance for the themes dealt with in this project are his works on financial firms, such as the Bank of Portugal (Reis, 1996) and Caixa Geral de Depósitos (Reis, 1997). Joaquim da Costa Leite has recently become interested in the problems dealt with in this project, with particular attention to the interdisciplinary dimension between economics, management and history (Leite, 2006). Luciano Amaral has focused his research on the comparative study of Portuguese economic growth, in his Doctoral dissertation (Amaral, 2003) and in other works on economic growth in the postwar period (e.g. Amaral, 2009a and 2009b). Pedro Neves has devoted his research to business history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In his Docotral dissertation (Neves, 2007), he has studied the 50 largest Portuguese industrial firms between 1880 and World War I.
The promotors of the project expect to present its findings in conferences and leading journals, both national and international. They also expect to offer the scientific community and the greater public a series of objects or services of interest: a prosopographical data set of entrepreneurs, managers and political decision-makers during the period of the Estado Novo; a bibliographical database on business history in Portugal to be made available online; a database of Portuguese firms to be made available online; a dictionary of Portuguese managers, entrepreneurs and firms in the twentieth century; histories of firms and groups.
The project will bring a very important contribution to the study of various aspects of Portuguese economic history in general and of the Estado Novo period in particular. The vast ignorance on this period's business groups underscores the fact that much remains to be done in order to have a complete picture of the Portuguese economy in the twentieth century. Whoever wishes to better understand the reasons for the notable process of economic growth in the Estado Novo period needs the information that this project will provide.
