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Boardroom Scandal: The Criminalization of Company Fraud in Nineteenth-Century Britain

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  • Taylor, James

    (Senior Lecturer, Department of History, Lancaster University)

Abstract

Should businessmen who commit fraud go to prison? This question has been asked repeatedly since 2008. It was also raised in nineteenth-century Britain when the spread of corporate capitalism created enormous new opportunities for dishonesty. Historians have presented Victorian Britain as a haven for white-collar criminals, beneficiaries of a prejudiced criminal justice system which only dealt harshly with offences by the poor. Boardroom Scandal challenges these beliefs. Based on an unparalleled sample of legal cases - many examined here for the first time - James Taylor presents a radical new interpretation of the relationship between capitalism and the law. Initially, there were no criminal sanctions against publishing false prospectuses, concealing losses in balance sheets, and even misappropriating company money. But parliament became convinced of the need to criminalize these practices to protect the culture of stock market investment on which mid-Victorian prosperity increasingly rested. Persuading judges to play along was harder, with many invoking the principle of caveat emptor to exonerate defendants. But by the end of the century, successful prosecutions of company executives were commonplace. These trials performed multiple functions: they stabilized confidence in times of crisis; they dramatized the class blindness of the law; and they were increasingly seen as essential as faith in a self-regulating economy ebbed. The criminalization of fraud, therefore, has far-reaching implications for our understanding of nineteenth-century Britain. It also has relevance today in light of the on-going economic crisis and the issues it raises regarding business ethics and the role of the state.

Suggested Citation

  • Taylor, James, 2013. "Boardroom Scandal: The Criminalization of Company Fraud in Nineteenth-Century Britain," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199695799.
  • Handle: RePEc:oxp:obooks:9780199695799
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    Cited by:

    1. Toms, Steven, 2015. "Fraud and Financial Scandals: A Historical Analysis of Opportunity and Impediment," MPRA Paper 68255, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Mary A. O'Sullivan, 2015. "Yankee Doodle went to London: Anglo-American breweries and the London securities market, 1888–92," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(4), pages 1365-1387, November.
    3. 6, Perri & Heims, Eva, 2024. "The Board of Trade and the regulatory state in the long 19th century, 1815–1914," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122982, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Fjesme, Sturla L. & Galpin, Neal E. & Moore, Lyndon, 2021. "Rejected stock exchange applicants," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 502-521.
    5. Christopher J. Napier, 2017. "The Good Fraud: Accounting, Finance and Banking in a 1930s English Novel," CONTABILIT? E CULTURA AZIENDALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(2), pages 43-70.
    6. Marc Flandreau & Geoffroy Legentilhomme, 2022. "Cyberpunk Victoria: The credibility of computers and the first digital revolution, 1848–83," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(4), pages 1083-1119, November.
    7. Aaron Graham, 2020. "Incorporation and Company Formation in Australasia, 1790–1860," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 322-345, November.

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