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The institutional dynamics of early modern Eurasian trade: The commenda and the corporation

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  • Harris, Ron

Abstract

The focus of this article is on legal-economic institutions that organized early-modern Eurasian trade. It identifies two such institutions that had divergent dispersion patterns, the corporation and the commenda. The corporation ended up as a uniquely European institution that did not migrate until the era of European colonization. The commenda that originated in Arabia migrated all the way to Western Europe and to China. The article explains their divergent dispersion based on differences in their institutional and geographical environments and on dynamic factors, claiming that institutional analysis errs when it ignores migration of institutions and providing building blocks for the modeling of institutional migration.

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  • Harris, Ron, 2009. "The institutional dynamics of early modern Eurasian trade: The commenda and the corporation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 606-622, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:71:y:2009:i:3:p:606-622
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    2. Ilgmann, Cordelius, 2011. "The advent of corporate limited liability in Prussia 1843," CAWM Discussion Papers 46, University of Münster, Münster Center for Economic Policy (MEP).

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