New Law for New Enterprises: Cooperative Law in Germany, 1867–1889
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Timothy W. Guinnane
Timothy W. Guinnane is the Philip Golden Bartlett Professor of Economic History in the Department of Economics at Yale University. His research focuses on the economic and demographic history of Europe and the United States, with special emphasis on Germany.
Abstract
The first modern German cooperatives began operations in the 1840s and faced, among other challenges, unfriendly legal rules. In Prussia, cooperatives experienced official harassment as allies of the then-oppositional Liberals. More importantly, cooperatives lacked the right to act as bodies, forcing them to engage in expensive legal workarounds for simple tasks such as contracting debts. The first German cooperatives law, Prussia’s 1867 Act, made clear the cooperatives had a right to exist and gave them the right to act as entities. Further development in the cooperative movement exposed flaws in the original act. The 1889 (Reich) Cooperatives Act legalized some organizational differences in the newer, rural cooperatives, and introduced compulsory external audits for cooperatives. Most famously, the 1889 Act first allowed cooperatives with limited liability, a step that made German cooperatives more similar to those elsewhere in Europe. The historical literature on cooperatives has neglected two important parts of this story: problems with the way unlimited liability operated under the 1867 Act, and the close connection between cooperative and company law.
About the author
Timothy W. Guinnane is the Philip Golden Bartlett Professor of Economic History in the Department of Economics at Yale University. His research focuses on the economic and demographic history of Europe and the United States, with special emphasis on Germany.
Acknowledgement
For comments on this paper and related questions, I am grateful to Richard Brooks, Bruce Carruthers, Rainer Fremdling, Naomi Lamoreaux, Jonathan Macey, Susana Martínez Rodríguez, Toni Pierenkemper, Frauke Schlütz, Richard Tilly, and participants in seminars at the University of Münster and the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Nachruf auf Toni Pierenkemper (17. Oktober 1944 bis 19. Juli 2019)
- Industrialisierung oder Kapitalismus: Alternative Zentralbegriffe
- Mozart und seine Subskription der drei Klavierkonzerte KV 413-415 von 1783
- Regionale Industrialisierung revisited – Die niederrheinische Textilregion von der Protoindustrialisierung bis zum 20. Jahrhundert als Fallbeispiel
- Why Did German Early Industrial Capitalists Suggest Workers’ Pensions, Arbitration Boards and Minimum Wages?
- New Law for New Enterprises: Cooperative Law in Germany, 1867–1889
- Das Wechselkreditgeschäft der Reichsbank vor der Bankenkrise von 1931
- Work Creation, Rearmament, Public and Private Investment in Germany 1933–1938: An Input-Output Analysis of their Impact on Employment and Production
- Der Ursprung der geräuschlosen Kriegsfinanzierung im „Dritten Reich“ 1935–1939
- Die Expansion der deutschen Großbanken nach Österreich und in die Tschechoslowakei 1938/39
- Führen digitales Geld und digitale Bezahlsysteme zu finanzieller Inklusion und Wirtschaftswachstum?
- Preis für Wirtschaftsgeschichte
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Nachruf auf Toni Pierenkemper (17. Oktober 1944 bis 19. Juli 2019)
- Industrialisierung oder Kapitalismus: Alternative Zentralbegriffe
- Mozart und seine Subskription der drei Klavierkonzerte KV 413-415 von 1783
- Regionale Industrialisierung revisited – Die niederrheinische Textilregion von der Protoindustrialisierung bis zum 20. Jahrhundert als Fallbeispiel
- Why Did German Early Industrial Capitalists Suggest Workers’ Pensions, Arbitration Boards and Minimum Wages?
- New Law for New Enterprises: Cooperative Law in Germany, 1867–1889
- Das Wechselkreditgeschäft der Reichsbank vor der Bankenkrise von 1931
- Work Creation, Rearmament, Public and Private Investment in Germany 1933–1938: An Input-Output Analysis of their Impact on Employment and Production
- Der Ursprung der geräuschlosen Kriegsfinanzierung im „Dritten Reich“ 1935–1939
- Die Expansion der deutschen Großbanken nach Österreich und in die Tschechoslowakei 1938/39
- Führen digitales Geld und digitale Bezahlsysteme zu finanzieller Inklusion und Wirtschaftswachstum?
- Preis für Wirtschaftsgeschichte
