Different and Better?' Scottish Joint-Stock Companies and the Law, c. 1720-1845
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9804146 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mark Freeman (0000-0003-4521-2720, University of Hull, corresponding author), R Pearson (0000-0001-7419-3448), James Taylor (0000-0001-8246-7074, University of Hull) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 122 |
| Issue | 495 |
| Pages | 61-81 |
| Publication date | 2007-02-01 |
| 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/cel373 |
| OpenAlex | W2090479450 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
This paper examines the legal status of joint-stock companies in Scotland in the period between the ‘Bubble Act’ of 1720 and the reforms of company law in Britain in the mid-1840s. Historians have generally contended that Scots company law was ‘different and better’ than English law. In this paper, however, we question the assumption that the legal personality of the unincorporated company in Scotland gave it a significant advantage vis-à-vis its English counterparts. Using the examples of the National and Commercial Banks of Scotland, and the Shotts Iron Company, we argue that, while unincorporated companies were never in danger of being ruled illegal in Scotland, their status presented them with a number of difficulties in their day-to-day activities. This legal framework reflected the reluctance both north and south of the border to promote joint-stock enterprise at the expense of the private partnership long into the nineteenth century
Archaeology · Business · Common law · Corporate governance · Corporate law · Economic history · Economics · Economy · English law · General partnership · Joint-stock company · Limited company · Political science · Scots · Scots law · Sources of law · Stock (firearms · Stock exchange · Accounting · Finance · History · Law · Scottish History and National Identity
Bankruptcy Laws Around Europe (1850–2015)
Convergent evolution towards the joint-stock company
Law, politics and the governance of English and Scottish joint-stock companies, 1600–1850
Does the law and finance hypothesis pass the test of history
Organisational flexibility and governance in a civil-law regime
Technological change and the governance of joint-stock enterprise in the early nineteenth century
Investor behaviour in a nascent capital market
Three centuries of corporate governance in the United Kingdom
| Citations per year | 0.42 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2007 - 2026 (20) |
| Highly cited | No |