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"The Origins of Corporations" by Germain Sicard

The Origins of Corporations The Mills of Toulouse in the Middle Ages Germain Sicard, Matthew Landry, William N. Goetzmann

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Format:: Hardback
Publication date:: 11 Jun 2015
ISBN:: 9780300156485
Imprint:: Yale University Press
Dimensions:: 520 pages: 235 x 156 x 33mm
Illustrations:: 9 b-w illus.
Sales territories:: World

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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.

Germain Sicard is a jurist and legal historian who served as Officer of General Affairs, Center for Historical Research, School of Practical Studies in France.