corporate treasury in international business history.pdfVIP

Corporate Treasury in International Business History Mark Billings In this paper, I explore a hitherto largely neglected area of business history: the corporate treasury. Most business or corporate historians consider the corporate treasury function a specialized aspect of the finance function and give it little explicit attention. I argue that this neglect is undeserved, and consider how and why treasury has evolved as a discipline distinct from other aspects of the finance function. We can attribute the rise of the professional corporate treasurer to a number of factors: changes in the organization and financing of companies, including change and innovation in financial markets; the wider professionalization of management; and the internationalization of business. These factors affected different countries at different times. In Europe, economic and financial uncertainties in the 1970s acted as a major stimulus, whereas treasury, in common with other aspects of the “managerial revolution,” developed earlier in the United States. . . . most people could not have said in 1970 what a treasurer was. —A. R. Prindl The interesting thing about treasury is that 25 years ago it was not even considered to be a professional career. —Niall Fitzgerald, chair of Reuters plc. 1 The role of the treasurer has developed significantly in recent decades, and many countries have established professional treasury bodies. The nature of this role, and the prominence of treasurers in large, often listed and/or multinational, companies,