ABSTRACT
The "self-made man" of the Smiles tradition is the conventional hero of the Industrial Revolution. Private partnerships may be regarded as almost the typical form of early industrial organization, and were usually entered upon for a fixed and relatively short period of years, after which they were dissolved and probably reconstituted upon a somewhat different basis. Mr. Roberton Christie, writing from a legal standpoint, maintains that "the genius of the Scots law of Society was much more congenial to the development of the idea of a company as an entity independent of its constituent members and trading upon the credit of its own resources than was the common law of England". Transference of ownership under happier financial circumstances affected the personnel of several notable firms. Patents occupy a niche in economic development sufficiently important to justify special notice. Legal protection of patent rights was frequently an important aspect of industrial ownership.
