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Cited by 2Gothic Literature and Media AnalysisDecadence, Literature, and SocietyLiterature and Culture Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 56 of the 57 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

JEKYLL AND HYDE, INC.: LIMITED LIABILITY, COMPANIFICATION, AND GOTHIC SUBJECTIVITY

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Guest, Kristen·2016·Victorian Literature and Culture
DOI 10.1017/s1060150315000649
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Abstract

The emergence of limited liability over the course of the nineteenth century was marked by intense and sustained feelings of anxiety. Victorians debated it in Parliament and in the periodical press, anatomized its evils in fiction and drama, and theorized its merits and pitfalls in the nascent discipline of economics. Formalized at mid-century through a series of acts that collectively instituted what Paul Johnson describes as “companification” – “the substitution of an impersonal corporate legal entity for the sole proprietorship or partnership” – limited liability was the means by which a corporation was constituted as a legal individual in order to restrict the responsibility of a company's owners for its debts (106). Early response to the practice was tentative: though hailed by some as a means of promoting economic growth, limited liability also inspired fear among the public, for whom it seemed a threat both to moral character and to responsible social behaviour. Wary that it would promote dishonesty in business and legitimize irresponsible speculation among investors, the mid-Victorians did not initially rush to invest. Despite the fact that by the final decades of the century many early fears had been realized and anxieties about investment continued unabated, however, there was a marked shift towards a culture of investment (Taylor 212–13). Summarizing the effects of the “‘Limited-Company’ Craze” in the Nineteenth Century in 1898, one commentator observed that “Personal ownership has ceased to be the controlling power in trade; and when it left it took along with it that personal care, personal supervision, and personal responsibility which made our business great.” The result, he suggested, is that “we now have, in thousands of instances, mere ‘corporations without bodies to be kicked or souls to be damned’” (Van Oss 734).

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Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. Perkin, 1972, The Origins of Modern English Society
  2. Van Oss, 1898, The Limited Company Craze, Nineteenth Century, 43, 731
  3. Feltes, 1974, Community and the Limits of Liability in Two Mid-Victorian Novels, Victorian Studies, 17, 355
  4. September 1876, Blackwoods, 120, 293
  5. McCulloch, 1856, Considerations on Partnerships with Limited Liability
  6. Reed, 1984, A Friend to Mammon: Speculation in Victorian Literature, Victorian Studies, 27, 179
  7. McQuaig, 2001, All You Can Eat: Greed, Lust and the New Capitalism
  8. Besant, 1888, Norton Anthology of British Literature, 1603

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Metadata

Authors
Guest, K.
Affiliations
University of Northern British Columbia (CA)
Corresponding author
Guest, Kristen
ORCID
Guest, Kristen
Venue
Victorian Literature and Culture
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
2016-05-10
Volume
44
Issue
2
Pages
315-329
ISSN
  • 1060-1503 (ISSN-L)
  • 1470-1553
DOI
10.1017/s1060150315000649
OpenAlex
W2489387897
Cited by
2
References
57
Citations by year
2024: 1 · 2018: 1
FWCI
3.42
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified)
Locations
Victorian Literature and Culture (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Gothic Literature and Media Analysis
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Decadence, Literature, and Society
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Literature and Culture Studies
Keywords
limited liability, Gothic fiction, subjectivity, corporate personhood, investment culture, business ethics, nineteenth-century capitalism

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