Series 1 > Records of a Scottish cloth manufactory at New Mills, Haddingtonshire, 1681-1703

xl THE NEW MILLS CLOTH MANUFACTORY
Only fourteen per cent, were owned by individuals, and the
remaining twenty per cent, received privileges in the name of
one or two persons, who may or may not have been acting for
others whose names did not appear.
Under these circumstances, when the joint-stock system did
so much to improve existing industries and to start new ones
in Scotland, it is worth inquiring how these early companies
were organised, and what success they obtained. Altogether,
apart from the historical interest of such an investigation, it
possesses a distinct value as a contribution to the development
of the early joint-stock company, since details can be obtained
of some of the Scottish manufacturing companies which are
fuller than any that can now be recovered of similar works in
England.
In comparing the methods of procedure in Scotland and
England for the creation of a trading corporation, an interest¬
ing and important difference should be noticed. In England
the legal maxim, that ‘ only the king can make a corpora¬
tion,’ resulted in almost all companies of any importance
receiving incorporation by charter or patent from the king,
and very few were able to obtain a confirmation of the royal
grant from Parliament. The majority of the English patents
conferred certain exclusive privileges besides the right of
‘ perpetual succession,’ and therefore Parliament was inclined
to oppose the privileged companies. In Scotland the con¬
verse method was adopted. Under the Act of 1661 the
king remitted his powers of forming corporations for trading
purposes to any persons who were prepared to invest capital
in the establishment of industries. Therefore there were
comparatively few Scottish patents for commercial under¬
takings after the Restoration, and those actually granted
differed from the English ones in omitting to specify any
particulars as to the nature of the corporation which they
authorised. Instead of defining the ‘ body politic ’ as one