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Beyond the personal–anonymous divide: agency relations in powers of attorney in France in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Author

Listed:
  • Fabien Eloire

    (Centre lillois d'études et de recherches sociologiques et économiques (CNRS))

  • Claire Lemercier

    (Centre de sociologie des organisations)

  • Veronica Aoki Santarosa

    (University of Michigan)

Abstract

Powers of attorney are often interpreted as evidence of trust among the parties involved. We build a novel dataset of notarized powers of attorney, capturing a wide variety of agency relationships in four large French commercial cities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to test hypotheses on the relational basis of economic relationships. We find little support for the idea of a radical shift from personal to anonymous relationships during our period. Our results point to more nuanced transformations. The preference for proxies in the same occupation as the principal somewhat declined, while professional proxies emerged and principals used relational chains, especially involving notaries, to find proxies.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabien Eloire & Claire Lemercier & Veronica Aoki Santarosa, 2019. "Beyond the personal–anonymous divide: agency relations in powers of attorney in France in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/3v5ra0iula8, Sciences Po.
    • Handle: RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3v5ra0iula8h5a94g2b8a43cvb
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Proxy form; Power of attorney; Trust; Agency relations;
    All these keywords.

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