Dutch Free-Standing Companies, 1870 1940

Abstract

Abstract Mira Wilkins coined the term ‘free-standing company ‘, identifying it as a typical mode of British direct investment abroad. Describing the British situation between 1870 and 1914, Wilkins concluded that freestanding companies were to be found as investors in many different countries and in such widely differing activities as agriculture, timber, cattle-raising, mining, oil production, manufacturing, transportation, public utilities, mortgage banking, and land development. In many instances, the free-standing company served as an alternative to the extension abroad of the British home-based operating companies. Free-standing companies were often part of networks of promoters, bankers, financiers, solicitors, accountants, engineers, politicians, and traders. These networks provided the services the home office could not give because of its smallness. Wilkins supposed that the mortality rate was high among the free-standing companies, because the headquarters and networks failed to provide the necessary financial and managerial services. For this reason, the British free-standing companies were inferior to US multinational companies.