U.S. Corporate Development, 1801-1860

越来越多但仍不完整的证据表明，1800年后，美国在租赁商业公司方面领先世界。与其他国家相比，越来越多的企业家可以获得公司形式，这可能是美国在两个世纪前成为世界上增长最快的经济体的一个原因。该项目创建了1801-1860年间成立的所有早期美国公司的数据库，包括每个公司的重要统计数据，从公司名称、出生地到授权资本、董事人数、股东投票规则及其修正案。它记录了美国在商业公司发展方面的领先地位，并调查了公司对美国19世纪增长奇迹的贡献。该项目数据库记录了内战前美国各地公司创业和治理的程度和形式。它使学者、主要研究人员以及其他人能够评估企业家、管理人员以及他们在经济发展过程中创建和培育的公司的作用。它还将促进国际和国内比较不同的经济、金融和法律制度对经济增长的影响。该项目还为商业历史学家提供了一个数据库，其中包含了注册新公司的个体企业家的姓名，从而降低了他们的交易成本。它还为学者和其他人提供了战前美国公司的第一个完整名单，并将每个公司的重要统计数据放在他们的指尖。公司治理专业的学生从这项研究中受益，因为早期的美国是治理实验的实验室。董事的数量、股东投票规则和其他治理属性随着时间和地点的不同而变化很大。再加上股息记录，治理最佳做法变得清晰可辨。很久以前失去的经验教训可能会被重新吸取，这或许会对改善当今公司的治理产生影响。

Accumulating but still incomplete evidence indicates that the United States led the world in chartering business corporations after 1800. Making the corporate form increasingly available to entrepreneurs, more so than other countries did, is a potential reason why the United States two centuries ago became the world's most rapidly growing economy. This project creates a database of all early U.S. corporations formed in the years 1801-1860, including each corporation's vital statistics ranging from its name and birthplace to its authorized capitalization, number of directors, stockholder voting rules, and amendments thereto. It documents the U.S. lead in the development of the business corporation, and investigates the contribution of corporations to America's nineteenth century growth miracle. The project database documents the extent and form of corporate entrepreneurship and governance in each part of the United States before the Civil War. It allows scholars, the principal investigators as well as others, to assess the role of entrepreneurs, managers, and the corporations they created and nurtured in the economic development process. It will also facilitate international and intra-national comparisons of the impact of different economic, financial, and legal systems on economic growth. The project also lowers the transaction costs of business historians by providing them with a database containing the names of individual entrepreneurs who chartered new corporations. It also provides scholars and others with the first complete list of incorporated enterprises in the antebellum United States, and puts each corporation's vital statistics at their finger tips. Students of corporate governance benefit from the study because the early United States was a laboratory of governance experimentation. The number of directors, stockholder voting rules, and other governance attributes varied considerably over time and place. Coupled with dividend records, governance best practices become discernible. Lessons long since lost may be re-learned, perhaps with implications for improving the governance of today's corporations.