Levant Company, East India Company and Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, comparison of two systems of corporate governance and two legal systems during the XVIIth century.

Résumé En

In what ways does corporate governance is different between the joint-stock and the regulated corporation companies during the XVIIth century ? In order to answer this question, a comparison between the corporate governance of the two different systems is necessary. Three companies are going to be used to show the divergences between the joint-stock and the regulated corporations companies. The English and the Dutch East Indian Companies are representing the joint stock model and the English Levant Company will be regarded as the paragon of the regulated corporation system. The joint stocks can be defined as a system that divides capital of a company into shares held by each member of the company. The company trades for the account of its shareholders, and transfers the profits to them in proportion of their investment. And on the other hand, the regulated corporation system, leaves each merchant doing business for his own account from the moment he respects the regulations issued by the company. Even if their functioning is different, there are still similarities between the two models. The presence of an assembly who takes the decision for the members is the main one, although its composition depends on the company. The establishment of trade posts in order to commerce, and the implementation of a hierarchy and bylaws. In order to carry out this comparison, the sources used will be of various kinds, in the case of the joint stocks, it is mainly historiography and in particular, the last book published by Ron Harris, Going the Distance, Eurasian Trade and the Rise of the Business Corporation 1400-1700. For the Levant Company, the sources are mainly coming from the public record SP105 of the British national archives present at Kew. Most of the documents are the minute books, the correspondence of the company and the decisions of the ambassador in Constantinople. This combination of different sources makes it possible to compare the two models of governance of the three companies and to show how they are different from each other.