The course will focus on five main issues closely related to the historical evolution of the capitalistic system: 1) economic development (and the backwardness of «underdeveloped» countries); 2) business cycles, 3) the competition for the «leadership» between industrial economies; 4) convergence or divergence in different countries growth patterns; 5) differences between national capitalistic models (Anglo-Saxon, continental Europe, Japanese, and so on). The aim is that of approaching these issues from the point of view of those transformations in business organization, in management, in financing, in technologies and in modes of production, which took place during the three great industrial revolutions: the First one in England from the late 18th century, the Second one from the late 19th century and, more recently, that of information technologies.