For most big businesses outside the U.S., 1961 was a year of booming sales and bruising competition. Sales of the 100 largest non-U.S. industrial corporations, as reported last week in FORTUNE'S sixth annual directory, increased 8.2% to a record $67.9 billion. That was almost four times the 2.2% sales gain of the 500 biggest U.S. industrials. But foreign companies also learned to add that all-American phrase, the profit squeeze, to their own tongues.
Rising Sum. For the sixth straight year, the world's largest companies outside the U.S. were two giants under joint British-Dutch management: ROYAL...
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