While there is little disagreement among students of the history of multinational enterprise as to what Alfred Chandler seeks to argue in his chapter in Multinational enterprise in historical perspective, there are nevertheless a few gaps to be filled in this area. Chandler summarises his argument by stressing that ‘an understanding of technological and organizational differences and changes within operating units is essential to an explanation of the beginnings and continued growth of the industrial multinational enterprise’. Since about 1880 a salient feature of this development was, as its factor and product, mass production methods linked with standardisation. Here a major impetus came from electrical engineering which required internationally acceptable electrical units. A satisfactory solution of this problem was a precondition before electrification's economic and social potential could be realised.

The aim of what follows is to draw attention to this rather neglected aspect of the history of scientific and industrial relations, which is, however, relevant to the understanding of the origins and development of the corporate economy in its national and multinational context.

The late nineteenth-century ‘climacteric’

The term ‘multinational corporation’ itself, as noted by D. K. Fieldhouse, is of recent date (1960). However in his influential book The Unbound Prometheus (1969) David Landes does not appear to make use of it.