Companies in the Early Modern World: A Review of Recent Literature

TY - JOUR

T1 - Companies in the Early Modern World

T2 - A Review of Recent Literature

AU - Odegard, Erik

PY - 2022/11/14

Y1 - 2022/11/14

N2 - chartered companies provided one solution for the problems posed by long-distance trade in the early modern world. Accordingly, these organisations have been studied exhaustively. Yet the field is by no means depleted, as the books reviewed here attest. These six books cover questions ranging from whether the chartered companies acted as real business organisations or rather as appendages of state power, the relations between companies and states, the institutional development of the corporate form, and the nature of some of these companies as “company-states.” In addition, two edited volumes deal with specific aspects of the chartered companies and with noncorporate forms of merchant organisation. The works raise new questions and engage in ongoing debates. The review also raises a number of issues which could be addressed in future research, including the dominance of the East India Companies in our understanding of the corporate form as a whole.

AB - chartered companies provided one solution for the problems posed by long-distance trade in the early modern world. Accordingly, these organisations have been studied exhaustively. Yet the field is by no means depleted, as the books reviewed here attest. These six books cover questions ranging from whether the chartered companies acted as real business organisations or rather as appendages of state power, the relations between companies and states, the institutional development of the corporate form, and the nature of some of these companies as “company-states.” In addition, two edited volumes deal with specific aspects of the chartered companies and with noncorporate forms of merchant organisation. The works raise new questions and engage in ongoing debates. The review also raises a number of issues which could be addressed in future research, including the dominance of the East India Companies in our understanding of the corporate form as a whole.

KW - Chartered companies

KW - Early Modern History

KW - Business History

KW - Trade

KW - East India Company (EIC)

KW - Dutch East India Company (VOC)

KW - West India Company

KW - Merchants

U2 - 10.1017/S0165115322000158

DO - 10.1017/S0165115322000158

M3 - Article

SN - 0165-1153

SP - 1

EP - 11

JO - Itinerario

JF - Itinerario

ER -