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Treaties & Tradeoffs

History's big decisions, replayed without hindsight.

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Business Case Histories

Decisions by named companies, replayed from dated primary records and scored only on what managers knew at the time; every case closed at least five years ago.

4 replays on file; the lead file comes first, the rest newest first.

Illustration: a cut-paper boardroom table, a tall stack of film cartons on one side and blank screens and cameras on the other. Illustration

Business Case HistoriesCase review

Kodak Digital Camera: It Led US Sales in 2004, IDC Said

Kodak's 10-K, citing IDC, said it led US digital camera sales in 2004 at 21.9 percent. Its filings show its consumer digital arm losing money as film earned it.

Filed

Image credit

Illustration: Treaties & Tradeoffs. Generated schematic image — not a photograph or historical record. © Treaties & Tradeoffs, all rights reserved.

William Hogarth's 1721 print of the South Sea Scheme: a crowd and a merry-go-round beside a monument to the South Sea's ruin of London.

Business Case HistoriesCase review

South Sea Bubble: Anderson Dates the Bubble Act Pre-Crash

The Bubble Act got the royal assent on 11 June 1720, by Adam Anderson's account, before South Sea stock reached its top and 110 days before his price of 175.

Filed

Image credit

"The South Sea Scheme" by William Hogarth — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Hogarth,_The_South_Sea_Scheme,_1721,_NGA_30435.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/); modified: cropped

Keppler's 1889 cartoon: giant money bags labelled as trusts, one the Standard Oil Trust, tower over senators at their desks.

Business Case HistoriesCase review

Standard Oil: Court Upheld Its Break-Up by a Rule of Reason

In 1911 the Supreme Court upheld Standard Oil's break-up, reading the Sherman Act by a rule of reason. The 90 percent share was the government's allegation.

Filed

Image credit

"The Bosses of the Senate" by Joseph Keppler — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Bosses_of_the_Senate_by_Joseph_Keppler.jpg — Public domain (author d. 1894; published in the US in 1889; US and EU; United States Senate collection, Cat. no. 38.00392)

A painting of about 1683: large East India Company ships fitting out and at anchor on the Thames at Deptford, with the church tower behind.

Business Case HistoriesCase review

East India Company: Its 1600 Charter Set a 15-Year Term

By its printed text, the East India Company's charter of 31 December 1600 granted the trade for 15 years, revocable on two years' warning if unprofitable.

Filed

Image credit

"East India Company ships at Deptford" by English School, 17th century (anonymous) — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:East_India_Company_ships_at_Deptford_RMG_BHC1873.tiff — Public domain (anonymous painting of about 1683; US: made and shown before 1931 and more than 120 years old; EU: anonymous work more than 70 years after it was made public; faithful reproduction of a two-dimensional work, assessed as public domain by age by Royal Museums Greenwich, BHC1873)