Aldous, Michael (2015) Avoiding negligence and profusion: the failure of the joint-stock form in the Anglo-Indian tea trade, 1840–1870. Enterprise and Society, 16 (03). pp. 648-685. ISSN 1467-2227
|
PDF
- Accepted Version
Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
In the nineteenth century, firms operating in the Anglo-Indian tea trade were organized using a variety of ownership forms, including partnership, joint-stock, and a combination of the two, known as the managing agency. Faced with both an increasing need for fixed capital and high agency costs caused by the distance between owners and managers, the firms adapted and increasingly adopted the hybrid managing agency model to overcome these problems. Using new data from Calcutta and Bengal Commercial Registers and detailed case studies of the Assam Company and Gillanders, Arbuthnot and Co., this article demonstrates that British entrepreneurs did not see the choice of ownership as a dichotomy or firm boundaries as fixed, but instead drew innovatively on the strengths of different forms of ownership to compete and grow successfully.
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Official URL: | http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJourna... |
Additional Information: | ©2015 The Author. |
Divisions: | Economic History |
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HF Commerce |
Date Deposited: | 29 Sep 2015 10:40 |
Last Modified: | 21 Nov 2024 08:24 |
Projects: | PhD studentship |
Funders: | Economic and Social Research Council |
URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/63790 |
Actions (login required)
View Item |