The English Private Company

Abstract

Since I908 the expression Private has been a term of art with a precise statutory definition. This definition, however, was merely the culmination of a long historical development and it is perhaps advisable to commence this short account of an immensely important branch of English Company Law by a brief summary of its historical background.1 Until i844 there were no arrangements in England for speedy and cheap incorporation. The boon of corporate entity could only be obtained by a special Act of Parliament or by obtaining a charter from the Crown and neither was readily procurable. Hence business men and their advisers had tried to mould the unincorporated partnership into a form which would provide most of the advantages of corporate personality without a formal grant of incorporation. Thanks to the ubiquitous trust concept their efforts met with considerable success and produced a form of joint stock company organized under a Deed of Settlement which vested the property of the concern in Trustees, divided it into transferable shares, and entrusted its management to directors who would normally be the same as the