| Shareholder Democracies?: Corporate Governance in Britain and Ireland before 1850 Understanding the challenges of corporate governance is central to our comprehension of the economic dynamics driving corporations today. Among the most important institutions in capitalism today, corporations and joint-stock companies had their origins in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. And as they became more prevalent, the issue of internal governance became more pressing. At stake--and very much contested--was the allocation of rights and obligations among shareholders, directors, and managers. Mark Freeman is a senior lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Glasgow, an associate member of the Centre for Business History in Scotland, and the author of several books, including Social Investigation and Rural England, 1870-1914 . Robin Pearson is professor of economic history at the University of Hull and the author of Insuring the Industrial Revolution . James Taylor is a senior lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Lancaster and the author of Creating Capitalism. |