Akcje polskich spółek akcyjnych w XVIII wieku – analiza historycznoprawna, część II

Shares of Polish joint stock companies in the 18th century – historical and legal analysis, part II The paper analyses the legal construction of the shares of Polish public companies in the 18th century. The analysis relied on the statutes and documents referring to the shares. The Woolen Products Manufacturing Company founded in 1766 should be considered the first Polish public company. Before 1795, i.e. before the Third Partition of the country and the subsequent lost of independence, there had been established as many as seven companies of that type. The surviving projects of statutes show that there were plans for founding several other companies. The period in which the first Polish companies functioned was short and most of them were dissolved within a few years after they had been founded. This was partly due to the difficulties in collecting the capital fund. The preserved source materials allow for an analysis of the legal nature and function performed by the shares in the construction of these companies. In the second part of the paper the author focuses on the nature of shares as a bundle of shareholder rights and as securities. Shares of Polish public companies in the 18th century conferred upon their holders a number of rights such as, for example, the right to participate in the profits of the company or the right to vote at the shareholders’ meetings. Some of the preserved statutes provided for restrictions on exercising shareholders’ rights (e.g. voting rights), however, the scope of these rights was similar to the scope defined by present-day regulations. The shares of the first Polish public companies may also be attributed the nature of transferable security. The analysis of methods of transferring them as well as methods of affirming the status of a shareholder indicates that the character of 18th-century shares was similar to that of registered shares.