This article contributes to a line of research in Business History that aims to determine the factors of family business longevity in the long term with the study of individual cases. The literature has identified family cohesion as one of the essential factors for survival. Cohesion may be reinforced or broken at the time of the intergenerational transfer. This study finds that a critical response on the part of the business family to the difficulties associated with intergenerational transfer of control, including modifications to the original plan, is usually based on trust between generations. Within the business family cohesion facilitates intergenerational transfers and, consequently, allows the family to evolve and transform itself into a business dynasty.

This article studies the strategy developed by the Benedictine Community at the Monastery of Montserrat to conceal their patrimony through the constitution of a public limited company. The singularity of this case lies in the opacity that the Benedictines created regarding their properties in the eyes of the government and in the fact that the public limited company was, rather than just a simple mechanism to conceal the Community's assets, a real tool for business management. This instrumental character included a strategy for the enlargement of the patrimony, a line of improvement in the use of rented estates and services, and the execution of the Community's decisions concerning its assets. The business analysis of Larsa is focused on the development of the firm compared to that of its geographical environment, Catalonia, so as to show the similarities and differences between the Benedictine public limited company, managed by members of a religious order, and those run by laymen. Larsa's strategy was based, as that of similar firms, on organic growth and a low level of indebtedness, although a break occurred in that strategy as the result of an exogenous shock (the October 1934 Revolution) that forced the company to modify its objectives from longevity and solvency to profit maximization, dividend distribution, and even business decapitalization.

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This article studies the strategy developed by the Benedictine Community at the Monastery of Montserrat to conceal their patrimony through the constitution of a public limited company. The singularity of this case lies in the opacity that the Benedictines created regarding their properties in the eyes of the government and in the fact that the public limited company was, rather than just a simple mechanism to conceal the Community's assets, a real tool for business management. This instrumental character included a strategy for the enlargement of the patrimony, a line of improvement in the use of rented estates and services, and the execution of the Community's decisions concerning its assets. The business analysis of Larsa is focused on the development of the firm compared to that of its geographical environment, Catalonia, so as to show the similarities and differences between the Benedictine public limited company, managed by members of a religious order, and those run by laymen. Larsa's strategy was based, as that of similar firms, on organic growth and a low level of indebtedness, although a break occurred in that strategy as the result of an exogenous shock (the October 1934 Revolution) that forced the company to modify its objectives from longevity and solvency to profit maximization, dividend distribution, and even business decapitalization.

94 The French army did not question the product's quality and price; it was only worried about the delivery of the material. The dialogue between the manufacturer and a general of the French army can illustrate the situation. Whenever delivery times were too short, the Sedó family raised the product's final price and justified this action by mentioning the need to speed up production: "Procurarem fer-li el que ens demana, pero no podem donar cap garantia sobre la qualitat del producte final" ("We will try to do what you require, but we cannot guarantee the quality of the final product") said the family, and the French general's answer was "no es preocupin per la qualitat. El soldat que porti aquest uniforme estara mort abans que esfaci malbe la tela" ("Do not worry about quality. The soldier wearing that uniform will be dead long before the tissue is worn out."). Cabana, Fàbriques i empresaris, 292. 95 The behaviour of the Sedó family company was the opposite of that of the firms described by Higgins and Toms, "Financial distress". 96 Tafunell (2000).