Today, La Chaux-de-Fonds remains the administrative, and in many ways the spiritual, heart of the Swiss watch industry.

BBC: Where the world��s most expensive watches are made

SAP, a German software firm, and PeopleSoft, an American one, are now offering standard ways of organising and delivering administrative office work.

ECONOMIST: Men and machines

Railways, fast steamships and then the telegraph made it possible to expand, police and govern a vast, sprawling empire in ways that had previously been impossible with a relatively small army and administrative class.

ECONOMIST: The British empire