Making the market : Victorian origins of corporate capitalism / Paul Johnson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnson, Paul (Paul A.), author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in economic history. Second series.

Cambridge studies in economic history. Second series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Corporations--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Corporations.

Capitalism--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Capitalism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 255 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Corporate capitalism was invented in nineteenth-century Britain; most of the market institutions that we take for granted today - limited companies, shares, stock markets, accountants, financial newspapers - were Victorian creations. So were the moral codes, the behavioural assumptions, the rules of thumb and the unspoken agreements that made this market structure work. This innovative study provides the first integrated analysis of the origin of these formative capitalist institutions, and reveals why they were conceived and how they were constructed. It explores the moral, economic and legal assumptions that supported this formal institutional structure, and which continue to shape the corporate economy of today. Tracing the institutional growth of the corporate economy in Victorian Britain and demonstrating that many of the perceived problems of modern capitalism - financial fraud, reckless speculation, excessive remuneration - have clear historical precedents, this is a major contribution to the economic history of modern Britain.

Contents:

Mammon's cradle

Contracts, debts and debtors

Coercion, custom and contract at work

The incorporation of business

The limitation of liability

Corporate performance

Shareholders, directors and promoters

Mammon's conceit.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-21001-1

0-511-84727-0

1-282-63058-X

9786612630583

0-511-74904-X

0-511-74979-1

0-511-74324-6

0-511-74217-7

0-511-75053-6

0-511-74432-3

OCLC:

638859693