ABSTRACT
The public limited company, the most widely employed of the first class, made it possible in France (a liberal country where savings were high and sound) until World War I, to raise large amounts of capital from public sources for large concerns which developed through the industrial evolution of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Finally in France, the public limited company was also often used in lieu of partnership (either limited or general) based on the intuitus personae, until in 1925 an Act was passed organising a new type of company of a mixed nature : the private limited company. When an increase of capital involves new subscriptions, the new stocks have a pro-rata right on the reserve fund existing at the time of issue of additional capital, earned surplus accumulated through previous deductions from profits. The actual shareholders should not therefore be deprived of their own portion of this earned surplus and, consequently.
