Shareholder Democracies?

Corporate Governance in Britain and Ireland before 1850

Freeman Mark, Pearson Robin, Taylor James

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.

This comprehensive account of the development of corporate governance in Britain and Ireland during its earliest stages highlights the role of political factors in shaping the evolution of corporate governance as well as the important debates that arose about the division of authority and responsibility. Political and economic institutions confronted similar issues, including the need for transparency and accountability in decision making and the roles of electors and the elected, and this book emphasizes how political institutions – from election procedures to assemblies to annual reporting – therefore provided apt models upon which companies drew readily. Filling a gap in the literature on early corporate economy, this book provides insight into the origins of many ongoing modern debates.

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

Back to the list of books