Boardroom Scandal by James Taylor

Boardroom Scandal by James Taylor – The Criminalization of Company Fraud in Nineteenth-Century Britain – is one of 5 books I received as part of a donation to Oxford made by a lecturer who studied at Oxford and died prematurely. He had thousands of books and his family donated them to the university. The librarians took the books that were important to be a part of the university’s collection and distributed the rest of the books among students, with a book limit so more could apply and receive books. I’m very glad I picked this book. It was really interesting.

The book is about businessmen and how they should be dealt with by the courts if they commit fraud. The previous beliefs were that the poor where the only ones who would be trialled while the white-collar criminals would avoid justice. This book challenges these assumptions and does a very good job at showing a different view of the legal system in 1800s Britain.

Taylor looked at legal cases, some which were examined for the first time, to see how the relationship between corporate and laws changed in the 1800s. In the beginning there were were no criminal sanctions for people who published false prospectuses or “cooked the books”. Parliament saw that there was a need to legislate to create trust in the stock markets. Many from the middle-classes would invest thus making it safer for them and also benefiting the whole economy. Public discourse was also looked at and those snippets were interesting to read. By the end of the century there were many prosecutions of executives.

The book has 3 parts and each chapter focuses on a decade. It was the best approach to show how the law and the approach changed over time. I recommend the book. Not only it is interesting for a historian, but also for the non-historians to see how similar are the questions that we face now with the questions the people of the 19th century would ask themselves. For example: How much should the state interfere? Do read the book if you get the chance.

Boardroom Scandal by James Taylor

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My rating: 5/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes
Published by: Oxford University Press
Year it was published: 2013
Format: Hardcover
Genre(s): Victorian
Pages: 312

About the author: Professor James Taylor is professor in Modern British History at Lancaster University. His interest are in cultural, political, and legal dimensions of economic change in Britain since the 1700s. He published on subjects ranging from the early history of corporate governance and the regulation of commercial fraud, to the history of the financial press and cultural attitudes to advertising.
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