The Company

Zusatztext Praise for The Company by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge “Remarkable . . . True believers in the free market faith and heretics alike will profit from knowing this history.” – San Francisco Chronicle “A swashbuckling journey through the past and into the future of the modern company.” – Los Angeles Times The authors take up [the corporation’s] tale with brio and wit . . . . Worthwhile for almost anyone with an interest in the subject.” – The Wall Street Journal “The limited-liability joint-stock company is a very marvel of the modern world economy, a historical force to rival religions, monarchies, and even states. The Company tells the colorful story of its birth and maturation—and its pervasive social and cultural consequences—with rare concision and flair.” — David M. Kennedy , author of Freedom from Fear and professor of history at Stanford University “A fascinating and delightful investigation both of how the guilds and ‘corporate persons’ of the Middle Ages turned into the institution from which so many people today directly and indirectly earn their daily bread and of the issues facing the company in the twenty-first century.” — Daniel Yergin , author of The Prize and coauthor of The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy Informationen zum Autor John Micklethwait oversees coverage of the United States for The Economist . He lives in London. Adrian Wooldridge works for The Economist in Washington, D.C. They are coauthors of A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization and The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus . Klappentext Chosen by BusinessWeek as One of the Top Ten Business Books of the Year With apologies to Hegel, Marx, and Lenin, the basic unit of modern society is neither the state, nor the commune, nor the party; it is the company. From this bold premise, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge chart the rise of one of history's great catalysts for good and evil. In a "fast-paced and well-written” work (Forbes), the authors reveal how innovations such as limitations on liability have permitted companies to rival religions and even states in importance, governing the flow of wealth and controlling human affairs-all while being largely exempt from the rules that govern our lives. The Company is that rare, remarkable book that fills a major gap we scarcely knew existed. With it, we are better able to make sense of the past four centuries, as well as the events of today. Leseprobe 1 Merchants and Monopolists 3000 b.c. — a.d. 1500 Before the modern company came of age in the mid-nineteenth century, it had an incredibly protracted and often highly irresponsible youth. The merchants and marauders, imperialists and speculators, who dominated business life for so many centuries might not have formed fully fledged companies as we know them, but they nevertheless created powerful organizations that changed commercial life. As long ago as 3000 b.c., Mesopotamia boasted business arrangements that went beyond simple barter. Sumerian families who traded along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers developed contracts that tried to rationalize property ownership. The temple functioned as both bank and state overseer. The Assyrians (2000–1800 b.c.), a group one normally associates with biblical savagery, took this farther. One document shows an Assyrian ruler formally sharing power with the elders, the town, and the merchants (or karum, named after the word for quay, where they sat). There was even a partnership agreement. Under the terms of one such contract, some fourteen investors put twenty-six pieces of gold into a fund run by a merchant called Amur Ish...

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Praise for The Company by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge

Remarkable . . . True believers in the free market faith and heretics alike will profit from knowing this history.
San Francisco Chronicle

A swashbuckling journey through the past and into the future of the modern company.
Los Angeles Times

The authors take up [the corporation s] tale with brio and wit . . . . Worthwhile for almost anyone with an interest in the subject.
The Wall Street Journal

The limited-liability joint-stock company is a very marvel of the modern world economy, a historical force to rival religions, monarchies, and even states. The Company tells the colorful story of its birth and maturation and its pervasive social and cultural consequences with rare concision and flair.
David M. Kennedy, author of Freedom from Fear and professor of history at Stanford University

A fascinating and delightful investigation both of how the guilds and corporate persons of the Middle Ages turned into the institution from which so many people today directly and indirectly earn their daily bread and of the issues facing the company in the twenty-first century.
Daniel Yergin, author of The Prize and coauthor of The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy

Product details

• Authors: John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge, Adrian Woolridge
• Publisher: Modern Library PRH US
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 11.01.2005
• EAN: 9780812972870
• ISBN: 978-0-8129-7287-0
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 202 mm x 13 mm
• Series: MODERN LIBRARY; Modern Library Chronicles; MODERN LIBRARY; Modern Library Chronicles
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature