Gabriel Tortella is Emeritus Professor of Economic History at the Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid), Spain. He received the King Juan Carlos Economics Prize (1994), and has been President of the International Economic History Association, of the Spanish Economic History Association, and Chairman of the Academic Council of the European Association for Banking and Financial History. He is also a member of the Academia Europaea (London) and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Salzburg). Among his many publications, recent books include The Development of Modern Spain (2000), The Origins of the Twenty-First Century (2010), and (with Gloria Quiroga) Entrepreneurship and Growth (2013). José Luis García Ruiz is Associate Professor of Economic History at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. He has been Visiting Scholar at the European University Institute (Florence) and Harvard University. He has published several books and articles in the fields of financial history and business history. His main contributions are related to the history of big banks (Hispano, Banesto) and big industrial firms (Mahou, Barreiros) in Madrid.