The Constitution and Finance of English, Scottish and Irish Joint-Stock Companies to 1720 - The General Development of the Joint-Stock System to 1720 #270029

Capital, the development of the joint-stock system occupies an important place. This method of organization became prominent at an early period in England, and the investigation of it has all the fascination arising out of the small beginnings of a type of association which eventually attained great magnitude. In a number of ways this enquiry contains much both of interest and romance which would scarcely be expected in a work that necessarily includes a large amount of statistical material. At the present time joint-stock management has been standardized. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries methods were still to be discovered, and the conflict between different practices is suggestive and instructive. Not only were the methods new, but the system itself was applied to enterprizes which were then novel. Thus early companies were concerned in voyages of discovery, privateering, foreign trade, the exploiting of new inventions and the financing of the government. In these early ventures there is a remarkable freshness in the point of View of the shareholders, and their speech and writings are characterized by vigour and directness.