[8-9] ... the family firm is a form of productive organisation whose origin is impossible to locate precisely in place or time. Family firms were in the absolute majority during the first industrial revolution, as well as in the pre-industrial period, going from the urban artisan's workshop to the famous Medici Bank,..., to the sophisticated commercial trading company of Andrea Barbarigo, 'Merchant of Venice', and the sibling partnerships common in the same period among the merchants of the Adriatic Sea Republic. ... The presence of the family firm inside a certain economic system is largely -if not completely- due to asymmetric information, a turbulent envirnoment, and a legal system unable to secure and enforce property rights. ... The 'classic' family firm...property and control are firmly entwined, where family members are involved in both strategic and day by day decision-making, and the firm is shaped by a dynastic motive. ...