Making Commercial Law Through Practice 1830–1970

Draws on archival research to tell the story of the nineteenth and twentieth-century development of commercial law through practice.

Ross Cranston (Author)

9781316648377, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 August 2022

527 pages
24.4 x 17 x 2.7 cm, 0.833 kg

'The first main point of interest in Making Commercial Law is the detailed analysis of how English law and English courts shaped the normative environment within which markets expanded, in England and in a large part of the world … the first introductory chapter (pp. 1–60) should be a must-read for any historian with even a passing interest in the operations of nineteenth-century markets or in the way the Common Law shaped those markets - and not as a dummy variable.' Jérôme Sgard, The Journal of Economic History

Making Commercial Law Through Practice 1830–1970 adds a new dimension to the history of Britain's commerce, trade manufacturing and financial services, by showing how they have operated in law over the last one hundred and forty years. In the main law and lawyers were not the driving force; regulation was largely absent; and judges tended to accommodate commercial needs, so that market actors were able to shape the law through their practices. Using legal and historical scholarship, the author draws on archival sources previously unexploited for the study of commercial practice and the law's role in it. This book will stimulate parallel research in other subject areas of law. Modern commercial lawyers will learn a great deal about the current law from the story of its evolution, and economic and business historians will see how the world of commerce and trade operated in a legal context.

1. Commercial and Legal Context
2. The Commodity Markets of London and Liverpool
3. Agents, 'Agents' and Agency
4. Sale, Hire and the Distribution of Manufactured Goods
5. International Commodity Sales
6. Bank Finance for Trade and Industry.

Subject Areas: Company law [LNCD], Commercial law [LNCB], Legal history [LAZ], Economic history [KCZ]