Social entrepreneurship in nineteenth century Britain: The Free Church of Scotland

John W. Sawkins

No 2025-05, Accountancy, Economics, and Finance Working Papers from Heriot-Watt University, Department of Accountancy, Economics, and Finance

Abstract: This paper examines the establishment and early evolution of the Free Church of Scotland; the only British religious denomination to be founded on a national scale through voluntary financial support from its inception. Through an analysis of the church's origins and early institutional development the paper offers fresh insights into nineteenth-century Scotland's foremost voluntary institution. Central to this is the socially entrepreneurial leadership of Rev Dr Thomas Chalmers, as well as the structural deficiencies in institutional governance that impaired the church's capacity to address enduring financial challenges, notably cross-subsidy and debt. In doing so, the study contributes to the field of business history by analysing a previously overlooked organizational form that emerged from a long running conflict between ecclesiastical and state authorities over the limits of sovereign power.

Keywords: Voluntary sector; social entrepreneurship; church; Victorian Scotland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L31 N8 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:hwuaef:323948

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