Law and English railway capitalism, 1825-1875
By: R.W. Kostal.
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 417
Subjects: Railroads -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Railroad law -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century
Description: Law and English Railway Capitalism 1825-1875 is the first large-scale historical treatment of the relationship between English law and the rise of a leading sector of 19th century industrial enterprise. It examines the impact of English common law and lawyers on the early steam railway industry.

Grounded in a wide variety of legal and industrial source materials, the study's eight analytical narrative chapters examine a range of interactions between early railway capitalism and the evolving culture, doctrine, and procedures of Victorian lawyers. Subjects considered in depth include the legal ramifications of the great railway manias, law and the infiltration of the English countryside, railway accidents, corporate monopolism, and the organization of England's first corporate legal departments.

Each chapter contributes to an ambitious general interpretation of the engagement of an ancient and powerful legal system with a new and dynamic form of industrial capitalism.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [389]-410) and index.
Based on author's thesis (doctoral)--Oxford, 1990.