1st Edition

Conceiving Companies Joint Stock Politics in Victorian England

By Timothy L. Alborn Copyright 1998
    320 Pages
    by Routledge

    308 Pages
    by Routledge

    Questions concerning the relationships and boundaries between 'private' business and 'public' government are of great and perennial concern to economists, economic and business historians, political scientists and historians.Conceiving Companies discusses the birth and development of joint-stock companies in 19th century England, an area of great importance to the history of this subject. Alborn takes a new approach to the rise of large scale companies in Victorian England, including the Bank of England and East India Company and Victorian railways, locating their origins in political and social practice. He offers a new perspective on an issue of great significance, not only for historians, but for political scientists and economists.

    Chapter 1 Introduction: Companies and States; Part I Sovereign Companies; Chapter 2 Democratic Despot; Chapter 3 Reluctant Sovereign; Part II Joint-Stock Banks; Chapter 4 Representatives of the People; Chapter 5 Shifting Gears; Chapter 6 Doing Enormous Things; Part III Railways; Chapter 7 Early Railways and the Machinery of Joint-Stock Politics; Chapter 8 Railway Republics and Bureaucratic Visions, 1860–75; Chapter 9 Railways Against Democracy, 1875–1914; Chapter 10 Conclusion;

    Biography

    Timothy L. Alborn is Associate Professor of History and Social Studies at Harvard University. He has published articles on economic language and culture, and on the history of science, in journals including Victorian Studies, Science in Context, and History of Political Economy.