Capitalism Before Corporations

To what extent did English law facilitate trade before the advent of general incorporation and modern securities law? This is the question at the heart of <em>Capitalism before Corporations</em>. It examines the extent to which legal institutions of the Regency period especially Lord Eldon's<br>Chancellorship were sympathetic to the needs of merchants and willing to accommodate their changing practices and demands within established legal doctrinal frameworks and contemporary political economic thought. In so doing this book probes at the heart of modern debates about equity trusts <br>insolvency and the justifiability of corporate privileges. <p/>Corporations are an integral part of modern life. We bank with corporations we usually buy our groceries from them and they provide us with most news and media. We take it for granted too that most large-scale business and even much small-scale business is carried out by corporations. Things<br>were not always so. Televantos considers the Bubble Act of 1720 which criminalised the forming of corporations without a Royal Charter or Act of Parliament its repeal in 1825 and the subsequent impact. Much of the modernisation of Britain's industry therefore took place before general<br>incorporation was allowed. Unaided by statute traders had to create business organisations using the basic building blocks of private law: trusts partnership and agency.<br>