Silvia A. Conca Messina is Associate Professor of Economic History in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Milan, Italy. She recently edited Leading the Economic Risorgimento. Lombardy in the 19th Century, Routledge, 2022.

Takeshi Abe is Professor Emeritus of Osaka University, Japan, and is former President of the Business History Society of Japan (BHSJ). He is one of the editors of Region and Strategy in Britain and Japan: Business in Lancashire and Kansai 1890-1990, Routledge, 2000.