Wooldridge, Adrian (Author)

The book delivers exactly what its title promises: it is short and it is compact and the story it tells is indeed revolutionary. Equally important, it is very well written.

It is recommended to anyone interested in business, business history or history in general. ( )

A nicely told history, but far too pro business to be seen a objective. Each criticism of corporations raised by the authors is slapped away in a condescending manner. The contention that the corporation is overwhelmingly a positive thing for the world seems supported, but while the authors dismiss faulty anti-corporation exaggerations they greatly downplay some points. They make it sound as if the genocide of the Belgian Congo was ended by a single protest, not a decades long struggle, and use hostage taking not murder or mutilation as the example of corporate brutality. Later when pointing out that corporations do more good than bad they go back to the Congo and point out one corporate official built schools and roads and failed a turn a profit in his corner of the Congo. This a really shocking downplaying of one of histories great tragedies. ( )

The history of the company. I liked the first, historical parts best.
Share risks and rewards. European monarchs created chartered companies to pursue their dreams of imperial expansion." Ex east India Company, Virginia Company. Limited liability was key. "[T]he three big ideas behind the modern company: that it could be an "artificial person," with the same ability to do business as a real person; that it could issue tradable shares to any number of investors; and that those investors could have limited liability (so they could lose only the money they had committed to the firm)."
1.
Violent history, now different. Slavery, war, etc.
Merchants and monopolies. State monopolies inefficient. In Europe at least internal competition.
Unlimited liability. De Medici innovative-separate partnerships and profit sharing arrangements.
Northern Europe: copies much from Italy,but most imp contribution was guilds and chartered companies. Corporate bodies started, immortal. Towns, guilds, etc.
2.
Royal charter-exclusive trading rights. Joint stock company. Start to buy shares, and limited liability. East India company troubled initially, but managed. Exclusive rights to sell tea in the American colonies-Boston tea party. Monopolies, criticism from Adam Smith. Courts. Government of big organizations and many people.
3. A prolonged and painful birth 1750-1862
Reinvigorate the idea of the company. Partnerships most common, but unlimited liability a problem. State competition to have the least regulation in order to attract companies. Railways changed things.

Recommended for the historical parts. ( )

too brief, too concise history of corporate business form; too focused on very recent (mid to late 20th cent) ( )