>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
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