 WHERE TO BUY |
Shareholder Democracies?: Corporate Governance in Britain and Ireland before 1850
University of Chicago Press, 2011 Cloth: 978-0-226-26187-4 | eISBN: 978-0-226-26188-1
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE | BUY THIS BOOK
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Understanding the challenges of corporate governance is central to our comprehension of the economic dynamics driving corporations today. Among the most important institutions in capitalism today, corporations and joint-stock companies had their origins in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. And as they became more prevalent, the issue of internal governance became more pressing. At stake—and very much contested—was the allocation of rights and obligations among shareholders, directors, and managers. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Mark Freeman is a senior lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Glasgow, an associate member of the Centre for Business History in Scotland, and the author of several books, including Social Investigation and Rural England, 1870–1914. Robin Pearson is professor of economic history at the University of Hull and the author of Insuring the Industrial Revolution. James Taylor is a senior lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Lancaster and the author of Creating Capitalism. REVIEWS
“The struggle over political representation in Britain is more than the well-known story of parliamentary reform culminating in the Great Reform Act of 1832. It was about representation in a plethora of bodies, such as charities or improvement commissions that responded to the problems of an urban and industrial nation—and, as this excellent book shows, it was also about representation in joint-stock companies. The findings will be of great interest not only to business historians interested in corporate governance in the Industrial Revolution, but to anyone interested in wider issues of power and representation in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. This book is a major contribution to the debate over what kind of democracy is needed within a capitalist economy.” — Martin Daunton, University of Cambridge“Shareholder Democracies? reconstructs in rich detail the early stages of industrialization, when money and voting intersected against the backdrop of an uncertain legal framework and a thriving culture of political participation among middle-class investors. The authors add impressive archival breadth and depth to what we thought we knew about the timing and contours of ‘joint-stock politics’ up to 1850—including the wide variety of corporate constitutions, the numerous arrangements for electing boards, and the increasingly inadequate strategies for rendering boards accountable once elected.” — Timothy Alborn, author of Regulated Lives: Life Insurance and British Society 1800-1914“Truly impressive. Mark Freeman, Robin Pearson, and James Taylor have mined a wealth of sources in an extraordinary number of repositories to offer an unparalleled wealth of historical detail. Shareholder Democracies? represents a quantum leap in our knowledge of the governance of early joint-stock companies in Britain and Ireland from the early eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, and it will have strong appeal both to historians and contemporary analysts of corporate governance.” — Colleen Dunlavy, University of Wisconsin–Madison"It is a remarkable fact that the years that saw the Industrial Revolution flourish in Britain were a time when British company law was relatively unfriendly to the needs of many entrepreneurs. Does this mean that British law and politics didn’t matter? Analyzing the impact of these forces requires an understanding of how firms were actually organized, and how the legal framework within which they operated shaped their development. . . . This is exactly what Mark Freeman, Robin Pearson and James Taylor have done for their book Shareholder Democracies? . . . The book is a valuable contribution to the study of the history of the company in Britain." — , EH.net “Shareholder Democracies? rests upon an impressive empirical foundation enriched by the authors’ extensive acquaintance with business historiography. Through explication of many nuances and fine distinctions of company policies and practices across Ireland, Scotland, and Britain, Mark Freeman, Robin Pearson, and James Taylor address fundamental issues of internal distribution of power in companies, in particular the practical, bureaucratic, and legal divergence of managerial control from shareholder rights especially evident in large companies. While the scope and purpose of the book do not allow for investigating the role personal leadership, labor markets, or technology played in shaping corporate governance, it clearly demonstrates that the intersection of law, political trends, and risk with corporate governance up to 1844 constituted an important chapter in the history of human association. The book is also a timely investigation of issues relevant to contemporary battles over corporate regulation and risk management, shareholder rights, and government oversight.” — , Reviews in History TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
BiblioVault may have an electronic file which would meet your requirements for this title:
BUY THIS BOOK
Available from University of Chicago Press in: cloth, ebook. This title is also available as an ebook at: Amazon Kindle Apple iBooks Barnes & Noble Nook CafeScribe Chegg Inc eBooks Corp. Google Play Kno Kobo See other books on: 18th century | Britain | Corporate governance | Economic History | Ireland See other titles from University of Chicago Press |
|
More to explore:
Books and Reading
| |