Shareholder Democracies? English Stock Companies and the Politics of Corporate Governance during the Industrial Revolution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9801836 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R Pearson (0000-0001-7419-3448) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 117 |
| Issue | 473 |
| Pages | 840-866 |
| Publication date | 2002-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The English Historical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-8266 • E-ISSN: 1477-4534 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ehr/117.473.840 |
| OpenAlex | W2055168167 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
Much remains unknown about the political dimensions of business during the classic period of the British industrial revolution, c.1770‐1850. This article focuses upon one aspect of those politics, namely the internal relations between company directors, managers and shareholders. Its object is to search for ‘shareholder democracy’ in action, through a study of the governance of stock companies in the insurance industry, based upon the surviving records of nearly 50 firms. Before the 1830s this was the leading sector in the economy for the unchartered joint‐stock partnership, one of the most common and problematic forms of stock company organisation in Britain before the railway age. The scale of these enterprises, with their large shareholder base and extensive marketing operations, helped sharpen the principal agent issues which Adam Smith regarded as endemic problems in joint‐stock organisations. The first section of the article examines the scale of joint‐stock enterprise during the first industrial revolution – for its extent and importance have traditionally been questioned – and the legal and institutional context within which it developed. The second section presents evidence from the insurance sample which suggests that the history of ‘participatory shareholder democracy’ remained difficult and contested throughout this period
Business · Corporate governance · Economics · Joint-stock company · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Shareholder · Accounting · Finance · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law
Business in Pictures
Business Networking in the Industrial Revolution
An Incomplete Revolution
Internalities and the Foundations of Corporate Governance
Corporate Law Versus Social Autonomy
Mutual life insurers
Origins resting behind banking financial accountability of paragraphs 78 to 82 of the First Schedule of the Companies Act 1862 (UK)
A new view of shareholder voting in the nineteenth century
Technological change and the governance of joint-stock enterprise in the early nineteenth century
Investing in independence
De la mutualisation solidaire à la gestion actuarielle
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.44 |
| Citation span | 2001 - 2022 (22) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |