The Origins of Corporations: The Mills of Toulouse in the Middle Ages (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300156485)

Fully modern corporations appeared in fourteenth-century Toulouse, much earlier than previously believed

Germain Sicard proves that Europe's first corporations were fourteenth-century mill companies operating in Toulouse, rather than seventeenth-century English and Dutch trading companies as commonly believed. He shows that the corporate form derives from a unique ownership contract from Medieval Europe called pariage, and a culture of strong property rights and municipal self-governance. Based on archival research, Sicard's 1952 thesis has been translated into English with an introduction that places the work in the context of new institutional economics and legal theory. It is an important contribution to research on the history and legal origins of the corporation.

Author: Germain Sicard
ISBN-10: 0300156480
ISBN-13: 9780300156485
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 07/14/2015
Pages: 520
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.90lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.40d