One of the recurring problems in the study of management theory concerns the authority relationships between stockholders, officers, and directors of corporations. The power centers in the corporate form of enterprise are quite different from those that obtain in an individual proprietorship and in a partnership. In addition, many differences between these types of legal organizations may be noted as one considers them from the point of view of the source of executive authority or from the viewpoint of statute law and its interpretations.

When the Williams brothers migrated from Connecticut to New York State in 1825 they established themselves as country merchants, yet their activities bore a distinct resemblance to those of the seaboard merchants of the late eighteenth century. Although divorced from international trade, the Williamses exhibited the same dependence on country produce, the same need to exchange produce for specie and specie for manufactured goods as did the House of Hancock.

The Kress Room of Baker Library recently acquired the Latin and German editions of a book which must be considered one of the first, if not the first, guide for investors published in Germany. According to the custom of the times, the titles are cumbersome indeed. The earlier Latin edition's title reads: Commentatio juris praesertim Germanici tam consonarais quam dissonantis de pecunia mutuaticia tuto collocanda. An wen, wie, und wo die Capitalien am sichersten auszulehnen (Goettingae, 1761); while the German edition is entitled Der Kluge Capitalist, oder politisch redlicher Unterricht, wie Gelder am sichersten zu benutzen und anzulegen (Nürnberg, 1766; 2d ed., 1786).