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Laws to Encourage Manufacturing: New York Policy and the 1811 General Incorporation Statute*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Ronald E. Seavoy
Ronald E. Seavoy
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Bowling Green State University
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Abstract

Continuing a long tradition, the government of New York attempted to aid domestic manufacturing in various ways during the troubled period of the Embargo, the War of 1812, and the war's aftermath. Among the most important legislative actions was the state's general incorporation law for manufacturing, passed in 1811 on a temporary basis and enacted without time limit in 1821.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , Spring 1972 , pp. 85 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1972

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References

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2 Quoted in Bruchey, Stuart, The Roots of American Economic Growth, 1607-1861: An Essay in Social Causation (New York, 1965), 112.Google Scholar

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6 Ch. 56, 1790, Greenleaf, Thomas, ed., The Laws of the State of New York Comprising the Constitution and Acts of the Legislature since the Revolution (New York, 1797), vol. IIGoogle Scholar; Ch. 47, 1793; Ch. 45, 1795; Ch. 54, 1796; Ch. 68, 1797, Greenleaf, vol. III. Citations to the statutes of the state of New York hereinafter will be by capitulary number and year.

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The frequency of use of New York's 1811 statute compares very favorably with the number of special manufacturing charters passed in Massachusetts from 1800 to 1816. The Massachusetts legislature incorporated 318 business corporations, plus 86 in Maine. In all New England from 1800 to 1817, 280 manufacturing and mining charters were passed, all by special acts; Kessler, William C., “Incorporation in New England; a Statistical Study, 1800-1875,” Journal of Economic History, VIII (1948), 46–47.Google Scholar Maryland showed a similar spurt in manufacturing activity during the same years; Blandi, Joseph G., Maryland Business Corporations, 1783-1852 (Baltimore, 1934), 93–96.Google Scholar

The only litigation concerning the 1811 statute arose out of interpreting its liability clause. This was almost inevitable because of the large number of bankruptcies after 1815. The case of Slee v. Bloom (decided in 1821) began this controversy, and although the case was not until April 1819, the business involved had been bankrupt since 1816. See Slee v. Bloom 5 Johns Chancery 368 (1821); Howard, Stanley E., “Stockholder Liability under the New York Act of March 22, 1811,” Journal of Political Economy, XLVI (August, 1938), 501–513.Google Scholar