Organisational flexibility and governance in a civil-law regime: Scottish partnership banks during the Industrial Revolution

Unlike their English counterparts, Scottish partnership banks during the Industrial Revolution operated under partnership law which was similar to the French société en commandite. The article suggests that the definitive feature of this partnership law was that it permitted partnerships to separate ownership from control and stock to be traded. Archival evidence also suggests that Scottish partnership banks had mechanisms to ameliorate potential insider opportunism arising from the separation of ownership from control. The available evidence also suggests that the ability of Scottish banks to separate ownership from control may have contributed to the relative stability of the banking system.