"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. From the granting of a royal charter to the Honourable East India Company in London in 1600 to the modest beginnings of a dry-goods business established by Levi Strauss during the California Gold Rush of the 1850s, and from the foundation - with $28,000 of start-up capital - of the Ford Motor Company in 1903, to the creation in 1975 of a company called Micro-Soft by two college kids named William Gates III and Paul Allen, author Jonathan Mantle presents a diverse, informative and thought-provoking sequence of stories of corporate achievement. The companies he profiles embrace every field of commercial endeavour, from iron-smelting to information reporting, from automobiles to oral contraceptives, from tourism to telecommunications, and from women's underwear to web services. As well as clearly and accessibly charting the companies' growth and influence over time, Jonathan Mantle includes memorable portraits of the entrepreneurs whose genius, energy and strategic vision drove their organizations forward. An concise history of commerce and capitalism.