Going the Distance: Eurasian Trade and the Rise of the Business Corporation, 1400-1700 by Ron Harris, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2020, xi + 465 pp. (including index), £40 (hardback), ISBN 9780691150772. There are few writers more adept at connecting business history, legal history, and organizational form than Ron Harris. His Industrialising English Law (published 2000) transformed understanding of the development of the legal form in England from 1720 to 1844. It remains the primary point of reference to understand the legal context of the introduction of companies incorporated by registration. His new book, Going the Distance, will become as important for its time of study: the earlier period of 1400-1700. The difference here, though, is a dramatically increased geographical scope. Harris explains how Eurasian trade changed between 1400 and 1700. More than this ‘how’, Harris seeks to explore the ‘why’. In doing so, he makes two primary claims …
€ (Taylor and Francis)
Jonathan Hardman, Book Review, Journal of Legal History. Published online: 26 February 2024.
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