Industrializing English Law: Entrepreneurship and Business Organization, 1720-1844 (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)

Between the passage of the Bubble Act in 1720 and the sweeping reforms of the General Incorporation Act of 1844, the legal framework of business organization in England remained remarkably stagnant despite the profound economic and structural changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution. Originally published in 2000, this book analyzes why this discrepancy occurred, especially when other nations of that time, whose economies were far less developed, were evolving more permissive laws of business organization. Employing extensive primary source archival material, Ron Harris shows how the institutional development of major forms of business organization - the business corporation, the partnership, the trust, the unincorporated joint-stock company - evolved and how English law finally took account of these developments. "Legal stasis in the face of rapid economic change poses serious challenges to deterministic and functional interpretations in the theory of law, institutions, and economic performance. This book explores a particularly important example: the slow and contradictory development in the law of business organization in England during the critical phase of the Industrial Revolution. Based on extensive primary source research, Ron Harris shows how the institutional development of major forms of business organization - the business corporation, the partnership, the trust, the unincorporated company - evolved during this period. He also demonstrates how this slow and peculiar path of legal change interacted with and affected the practice of individual entrepreneurs and the transformation of the English economy."--Jacket 1. The Legal Framework -- Pt. I. Before 1720 -- 2. The Pre-1720 Business Corporation -- 3. The Bubble Act, Its Passage, And Its Effects -- Pt. Ii. 1721-1810 -- 4. Two Distinct Paths Of Organizational Development: Transport And Insurance -- 5. The Joint-stock Business Corporation -- 6. Trusts, Partnerships, And The Unincorporated Company -- 7. The Progress Of The Joint-stock Organization -- Pt. Iii. 1800-1844 -- 8. The Attitudes Of The Business Community -- 9. The Joint-stock Company In Court -- 10. The Joint-stock Company In Parliament -- App. 1. The Rise And Decline Of The Major Trading Corporations -- App. 2. Capital Of Joint-stock Companies Circa 1810. Ron Harris. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 301-321) And Indexes. Annotation Between 1720 and the mid-nineteenth century, the legal framework of England remained static, while the country went through an economic and social evolution known as the Industrial Revolution. This book addresses the apparent discrepancy between the developing economy of 1720-1844 and the stagnant legal framework of business organization during the same period. The book specifically focuses on the ways by which the legal-economic nexus of the period gave rise to the modern institutions of organizing business. Much of the literature on the history of business organizations is the history of winners.