Constructing the Company: Governance and Procedures in British and Irish Joint Stock Companies, 1720-1844

UKDA study number:5622

Principal Investigators

Pearson, R.
Freeman, M.
Taylor, J.
University of Hull. Department of History

Sponsor

Economic and Social Research Council

Distributed by

UK Data Archive, University of Essex, Colchester.

September 2007

Bibliographic Citation

All works which use or refer to these materials should acknowledge these sources by means of bibliographic citation. To ensure that such source attributions are captured for bibliographic indexes, citations must appear in footnotes or in the reference section of publications. The bibliographic citation for this data collection is:

Pearson, R., Freeman, M. and Taylor, J., Constructing the Company: Governance and Procedures in British and Irish Joint Stock Companies, 1720-1844 [computer file]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive [distributor], September 2007. SN: 5622, http://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-5622-1.

Acknowledgement

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Copyright:
Robin Pearson, Department of History, University of Hull.

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5622 . Constructing the Company: Governance and Procedures in British and Irish Joint Stock Companies, 1720-1844

Depositor:

Pearson, R. , University of Hull. Department of History

Principal Investigators:

Pearson, R. , University of Hull. Department of History

Freeman, M. , University of Hull. Department of History

Taylor, J. , University of Hull. Department of History

Sponsor:

Economic and Social Research Council
Grant Number: RES 000 23 0096

Abstract:

The project represents the first comprehensive examination of corporate governance in industrialising Britain. Its working hypothesis is that in enterprises large enough for a space to develop between ownership and management, this space became a political arena in which governing executives confronted their public legislatures, the assemblies of shareholders. The project tests this hypothesis through an analysis of the institutional arrangements for, and the practice of, governance in stock companies in Britain between the Bubble Act of 1720 and the Companies Act of 1844, i.e. during the century or so when the legal status of the stock company in England was most uncertain, and when its status in Scotland was still not entirely resolved. Historians, such as Alborn and Dunlavy, have argued that there was shift from democratic to plutocratic practice in business governance in Britain during the first half of the nineteenth century. The project seeks to establish the existence, timing and reasons for this shift.

Main Topics:

A database of company constitutions was established to analyse the changing governance arrangements in a representative sample of 514 English, Scottish and Irish stock companies founded between 1720 and 1844, grouped into 12 industrial sectors. The object was to cross-tabulate governance provisions by industry, date of foundation, region, legal system (Scotland and Ireland), size and type of company. Variables of interest included capital structure, share denomination; number of shareholders and directors; managerial structure; limited liability clauses; procedure for calls; pre-requisites for share-ownership; scope of executive and proprietorial rights; frequency of shareholders meetings; shareholders franchise; quality of accounting information presented to shareholders. Numerous non-business records were also examined to provide the political, legal and cultural context in which stock companies operated during this period. These sources included diaries, autobiographies, pamphlets, newspaper articles, parliamentary papers, legal treatises, law reports.

Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

Coverage:

Time Period Covered: 1720 - 1844
Dates of Fieldwork: 01 October 2004 - 03 January 2006
date file created
Country: Ireland; United Kingdom
Spatial Units: No spatial unit
Observation Units: Institutions/organisations
Kind of Data: Textual data; Numeric data; Alpha/numeric data

Universe Sampled:

Location of Units of Observation: Cross-national
Population: Company constitutions records of selected English, Scottish and Irish stock companies founded between 1720 and 1844

Methodology:

Time Dimensions: Cross-sectional (one-time) study
Sampling Procedures: Convenience sample
Method of Data Collection: Compilation or synthesis of existing material
Data Sources: The data was collected from manuscript and printed sources, all dating from before 1845, including parliamentary acts of incorporation, patent rolls, printed and manuscript deeds of settlement, articles of association and copartnery, held in a large number of public libraries and record offices in Britain, Ireland and the USA. A full list of these sources is given in the MS Excel version of the database. There are no copyright issues at stake.
Weighting: No weighting used

Language(s) of Written Materials:

Study Description: English
Study Documentation: English

Access:

Access Conditions: The depositor has specified that registration is required. Available to all registered users. The depositor may be informed about usage.
Availability: History Data Service, UK Data Archive
Contact: Help desk: hds@essex.ac.uk

Date of First Release:

24 September 2007

Copyright:

Robin Pearson, Department of History, University of Hull.

File last updated:

31 October 2011