Article Dans Une Revue Business History Année : 2025

Convergent evolution towards the joint-stock company

Résumé

The origin of the modern joint-stock company is typically traced to the concomitant appearance of large-scale maritime trading companies in England and the Netherlands in the early seventeenth century. Highlighting medieval cases in southern Europe, we claim that the joint-stock company emerged earlier in history. These prior appearances support the theory of convergent evolution towards the joint-stock company. We document alternative and largely independent developmental paths that suggest the joint-stock company can emerge in a variety of legal, political and socioeconomic contexts. This evidence has implications for identifying the necessary background underlying the emergence of the joint-stock company, and for the debate regarding the link between business institutions and economic growth.

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Dates et versions

hal-05495554 , version 1 (05-02-2026)

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David Le Bris, William N. Goetzmann, Sébastien Pouget. Convergent evolution towards the joint-stock company. Business History, 2025, vol. 68 (n° 2), pp.1-26. ⟨10.1080/00076791.2025.2478880⟩. ⟨hal-05495554⟩
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