The Enterprise and the Interest of Society: Comparing Cooperative and Conventional Companies between Nineteenth and Twentieth Century

Abstract

The essay investigates the relationship between enterprises and society at the turn of the XIX century as it emerges both in conventional and cooperative enterprises. In the second half of the XIX century commercial laws deregulated the creation of public companies and introduced cooperative enterprises for the first time. Both the enterprises, conventional and cooperative, represented an answer to the crucial problems of the industrial revolution: the funding of enterprises, the social question and the corporate governance. In conclusion at the turn of the XX century two different model of enterprises emerged which will contribute to the Western countries’ economic development and to the definition of the relationship between enterprise and society.