Democratic Dividends: Stockholding, Wealth and Politics in New York, 1791-1826 / Eric Hilt, Jacqueline Valentine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hilt, Eric.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Valentine, Jacqueline.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w17147.

NBER working paper series no. w17147

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Democratic Dividends

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2011.

Summary:

This paper analyzes the early history of corporate shareholding, and its relationship with political change. In the late eighteenth century, corporations were extremely rare and were dominated by elites, but in the early nineteenth century, after American politics became significantly more democratic, corporations proliferated rapidly. Using newly collected data, this paper compares the wealth and status of New York City households who owned corporate stock to the general population there both in 1791, when there were only two corporations in the state, and in 1826, when there were hundreds. The results indicate that although corporate stock was held principally by the city's elite merchants in both periods, share ownership became more widespread over time among less affluent households. In particular, the corporations created in the 1820s were owned and managed by investors who were less wealthy than the stockholders of corporations created in earlier, less democratic periods in the state's history.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2011.