Organisational flexibility and governance in a civil-law regime: Scottish partnership banks during the Industrial Revolution

Graeme Acheson, Charles Hickson and John Turner ()

Business History, 2011, vol. 53, issue 4, 505-529

Abstract: Unlike their English counterparts, Scottish partnership banks during the Industrial Revolution operated under partnership law which was similar to the French societe en commandite. The article suggests that the definitive feature of this partnership law was that it permitted partnerships to separate ownership from control and stock to be traded. Archival evidence also suggests that Scottish partnership banks had mechanisms to ameliorate potential insider opportunism arising from the separation of ownership from control. The available evidence also suggests that the ability of Scottish banks to separate ownership from control may have contributed to the relative stability of the banking system.

Keywords: Scotland; banks; partnerships; common law; civil law; banking stability; legal personality; unlimited liability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2011.574690

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