The Evolution of Associate Forms of Enterprises and the Institution of Share. The Experience of the Commercial Branch, X-XVII Centures

Abstract

The paper describes the results of the investigation of the evolution of associate forms of enterprises and the fundamental principles of the institution of share. The investigated period is X–XVIII centuries. The main economic, institutional and legal and historical factors and prerequisites of the formation of business enterprises in the commercial branch are described and summarized. A comparative analysis has been made of the main organizational forms of associate management (business enterprises) of non-family type, such as guilds, commenda, joint-stock company and others. The comparison is made in the field of the enterprise participants’ (founders’) motives, the principles of organization that define different ways of risk management; the urgency of the contracts underlying the foundation of the enterprises; the degree of freedom of the participants including the freedom of disposal of the invested capital. The paper presents a model of the evolution of a corporation and the evolution of the system of contracting of the institution of commenda. A periodization has been worked out of the process of the origination, development, decline or transformation of associate organizational and legal forms of enterprises supplemented with an express-description of each of the forms.