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>With respect I have to differ on the subject of Cost Book companies. Sorry Roy, you are wrong. The companies to which I refer had cost books (I've seen them), and they were definitely not floated under any act of parliament. I agree that they probably had dubious legality as far as the limited liability sometimes claimed for them, but to the best of my knowledge that was never tested in court outside Cornwall/Devon. Most of the (small number of) cost book companies floated in Yorkshire in the late 1840s and early 1850s quickly took advantage of the Acts that you list and became limited liability. The companies concerned appear to have been used as a vehicle to widen shareholding from a partnership of the local great and good (who were getting out of lead mining) to include the growing middle class. I'm not aware of any ouside the 10 or 15 years period stated above. Until the 1850s most Yorkshire mines were run by partnerships of less than a dozen wealthy men. I also seem to remember picking up references to cost books being used for shipping - supposedly as a way of spreading risk, and at least one colliery company. Regards, Mike Gill