The Joint-Stock Company in England, 1830-1844

i 8oo through the great boom of the twenties which occasioned the repeal of the Bubble Act. Resurrected from supposed oblivion by the law officers of the Crown as a weapon to attack incipient unincorporated companies, the statute of I7I9 had presented serious dilemmas to promoters. And yet, in the face of doubts as to legality and of determined opposition from many sources, the unincorporated company forged its way to something like legal status in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. It became an important instrument in the organization of several fields of England's economic life. Beyond repeal of the Act of I7i9, however, Parliament took no steps to erect any sufficient legal framework to govern this new vehicle of business enterprise for the assembly and use of large amounts of capital. Furthermore, important incidents of incorporation, especially limited liability, remained within special gift of Parliament or under bureaucratic lock and key. This paper will discuss the next clearly defined period in the long and bitter struggle for freedom of incorporation in England, that from i830 to the passage of the Companies Registration and Regulation Act of i844. For some years, the crisis of i825-26 "abated the spirit of enterprise throughout the country.' 2 Indeed, the Circular to Bankers commented in i832 as follows: "The general absence of speculation in the commercial affairs of England is from the extraordinary length in which it has been manifest, the most remarkable feature in the history of commerce of the present