Description
Book SynopsisThis volume brings together nine chapters by specialist legal historians that address the topic of the scale and size of companies, in both legal and economic history. The bundled texts cover different periods, from the Middle Ages, the Early Modern Period, to the nineteenth century. They analyse the historical development of basic features of present-day corporations and of other company types, among them the general and limited partnership. These features include limited liability and legal personality. A detailed overview is offered of how legal concepts and mercantile practice interacted, leading up to the corporate characteristics that are so important today. Contributors are: Anja Amend-Traut, Luisa Brunori, Dave De ruysscher, Stefania Gialdroni, Ulla Kypta, Bart Lambert, Annamaria Monti, Carlos Petit, and Bram Van Hofstraeten.
Trade Review''Overall, this collection shows the value of discussing concepts explicitly. It creates some much-needed clarity, and this is perhaps the best way of establishing differences and similarities for comparative legal and historical research.The volume’s contributions show the way that legal study, through its demand for precision in language and its definition and meaning, can inform business and economic history;it is a fruitful example of how legal history can be combined with business and economic history''. Victoria Barnes, in Legal History , 27 (2019), pp.322-324.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Figures and Tables Introduction Dave De ruysscher, Albrecht Cordes, Serge Dauchy and Heikki Pihlajamäki 1 What is a Small Firm? Some Indications from the Business Organization of Late Medieval German Merchants Ulla Kypta 2 Making Size Matter Less: Italian Firms and Merchant Guilds in Late Medieval Bruges Bart Lambert 3 Late Scholasticism and Commercial Partnership: Persons and Capitals in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Luisa Brunori 4 Legal Structure of Early Enterprises—from Commenda-like Arrangements to Chartered Joint-Stock Companies (Early Modern Period) Anja Amend-Traut 5 Delving for Diversity in Early Modern Company Law: Mining Companies in Seventeenth-Century Liège Bram Van Hofstraeten 6 Incorporation and Limited Liability in Seventeenth-Century England: The Case of the East India Company Stefania Gialdroni 7 From Commercial Guilds to Commercial Law: Spanish Company Regulations (1737–1848) Carlos Petit 8 Partnerships as Flexible and Open-Purpose Entities: Legal and Commercial Practice in Nineteenth-Century Antwerp (c. 1830–c. 1850) Dave De ruysscher 9 Form, Size, “Governance”: Remarks on Italian Late Nineteenth-Century Companies Annamaria Monti Index
