Early American Land Companies: Their Influence on Corporate Development

Early American Land Companies: Their Influence on Corporate Development
By Shaw Livermore

2000/11 - Beard Books
1587980835 - Paperback - 354 pp.
US$34.95

A treatise on the rise of the modern business corporation from early American land companies and the subsequent enactment of general incorporation laws in the United States.

Publisher Comments

Category: Real Estate

Of Interest:

Building American Cities: The Urban Real Estate Game

Land Title Origins: A Tale of Force and Fraud

Land Use Policy in the United States

One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago: The Relationship of the Growth of Chicago to the Rise of Its Land Values, 1830-1933

The Land System of the United States: An Introduction to the History and Practice of Land Use and Land Tenure4

This erudite and well-researched treatise traces the origin of modern business corporations and analyzes the influence of unchartered bodies such as early American land companies in shaping them. Providing a fairly complete survey of land companies between 1750 and 1800, this book shows how, during that fifty-year period, they progressed from the partnership concept to the practical form of corporation.

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Shaw Livermore was Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Michigan

	Editor's Introduction	vii
	Author's Foreword	xxvii
I.	The Problem	1
II.	Precedent Form of Association	9
	The Gilds and Boroughs	14
	The New England Proprietorship	19
	The Proprietary Colonies	30
III.	Colonial Business Organization	37
	The Lynn Iron Works	42
	The Free Society of Traders	46
	The Frankfort Company	48
	The Connecticut Copper Mines	51
	The Principio Company	53
	The Equivalent Land Company	55
	The Land and silver Banks in Massachusetts	57
	Status of the Corporation	61
	French and Continental Law	69
IV.	Pre-Revolution Land Companies	74
	The 1748 Ohio Company	75
	The Susquehannah Company	82
	The Transylvania Project	90
	The Company of Military Adventures	97
	The Mississippi Company	102
	The Illinois-Wabash Companies	106
	The Illinois Company	111
	The Indiana Company	113
	The Grand Ohio Company, or Vandalia	119
	The Dismal Swamp Adventures	122
	Lesser Land Projects	126
V.	Post-Revolutionary Land Companies	133
	The Ohio Company	134
	The Yazoo Companies	146
	The North American Land Company	162
	The Asylum Company	171
	The Easter Land Associates	174
	The Connecticut Land Company	177
	The Fire Lands	187
	The Gore Land Company	192
	Western New York Companies	197
	"Castorland"	209
VI.	Corporations versus Associations: The Business Community's Attitude	215
	Strength of the Association Principle	238
VII.	Corporations versus Associations: Legislative Vagaries	243
VIII.	Corporations versus Associations: Judicial Inertia	272
IX.	Conclusion	295
	Appendix A. Articles of Association of the Louisa Company	299
	Appendix B. Articles of Association of the Transylvania Company	300
	Appendix C. Extract from the Articles of Agreement of the Illinois-Wabash Land Company	305
	Appendix D. Articles of Agreement of the Ohio Company	309
	Appendix E. Extract from the Articles of Agreement of the Eastern Land Associates	312
	Bibliography	314
	Index	319

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