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Joint-stock companies are companies that allow anyone to purchase ownership shares in exchange for contributions to the company’s total pool of capital stock. The joint-stock model is the foundation for all modern publicly-traded corporations, but Smith considers it a corrupt, unfair system, particularly because it offers directors limited liability and encourages unhealthy risk-taking.
Joint-Stock Company Quotes in The Wealth of Nations
The The Wealth of Nations quotes below are all either spoken by Joint-Stock Company or refer to Joint-Stock Company. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 5, Chapter 1 Quotes
Frequently a man of great, sometimes even a man of small fortune, is willing to purchase a thousand pounds share in India stock, merely for the influence which he expects to acquire by a vote in the court of proprietors. It gives him a share, though not in the plunder, yet in the appointment of the plunderers of India. [...] About the prosperity of the great empire, in the government of which that vote gives him a share, he seldom cares at all. No other sovereigns ever were, or, from the nature of things, ever could be, so perfectly indifferent about the happiness or misery of their subjects, the improvement or waste of their dominions, the glory or disgrace of their administration, as, from irresistible moral causes, the greater part of the proprietors of such a mercantile company are, and necessarily must be.
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Some merchants defend the government’s establishment of monopolies for joint-stock and regulated companies as a necessary step to supporting foreign commerce, but Smith sharply disagrees. He sees these companies as corrupt, wasteful, and unnecessary: in a country wealthy enough to conduct international trade, he argues, merchants will come together to form a company on their own. Above all, there is no need for the government to step in and issue a monopoly to any such company. If a company can’t survive on its own, he insists, then it simply shouldn’t. Smith takes the British East India Company as a key Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consec
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Joint-Stock Company Term Timeline in The Wealth of Nations
The timeline below shows where the term Joint-Stock Company appears in The Wealth of Nations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 5, Chapter 1
There are two kinds of companies: regulated and joint-stock companies . Regulated companies control a certain branch of trade and allow any merchant to join...
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In joint-stock companies , people pool their resources and become co-owners. These joint-stock companies are not the same...
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Joint-stock companies tend to encourage waste and corruption, start unjust wars, and fail unless they have monopolies...
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