Industrializing English Law: Entrepreneurship and Business Organization, 1720-1844

by Ron Harris

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521182522
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/17/2011
Series:	Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The legal framework; Part I. Before 1720: 2. The pre-1720 business corporation; 3. The Bubble Act, its passage and its effects; Part 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; Part III. 1800–44: 8. The attitudes of the business community; 9. The joint-stock company in court; 10. The joint-stock company in parliament.

Editorial Reviews

"Harris's study of the history of the forms of business association is an important one, written by an author with a mastery of a large body of literature..." Michigan Law Review

"...[an] innovative study." Journal of Modern History

"...[here] is a book with which every student of the modern business organization should be acquainted and that specialists in modern English history need to master." Henry Horwitz, Business History Review

"This monography is the most exhaustive historical survey of English business organization ever published. It is certain to become the standard reference work for scholars interested both in the legal moulds of English capitalism in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and in the interaction of legal and non-legal dimensions of economic activity in this critical period...Industrializing English Law_is a formidable work of synthesizing scholarship. A vast and disparate body of historical writing has been expertly leavened by relevant primary sources. the book's great strength is its carefully rendered ecology of business forms and economic sectors." EH.NET Jun. 01

"Harris's study of the history of the forms of business association is an important one, written by an author with a mastery of a large body of literature, and always related to empirical evidence though continuously informed by a concern with theoretical issues. It is clearly written...Like all good books it does not impose closure, but raises and suggests further lines of enquiry. It is a fine book that deserves a wide readership." Michigan Law Review

"A model study of the evolution of a technology, broadly defined." Technology and Culture

"This is an important work. It vastly improves our knowledge not only of the development of business organizations during a most critical period but also expands our understanding of the nexus between the English legal and business worlds." American Historical Review

From the Publisher