ABSTRACT
The joint stock company, and the interweaving of share ownership and credit relations which it permits, indicates the gradual transformation of property from a specifically personal relation to a more social relation. Control remains linked to ownership though not in a direct or immediate way. There is considerable evidence from a number of countries that individual families may retain control of a company even when they no longer have full ownership of it. Or to put it differently, the class ownership of capital is transformed from a personal form of ownership to a collective form of ownership. Underlying author's investigation is the claim that the pattern of interlocking directorships is a significant phenomenon in its own right, as well as being an indicator of the other relations between companies.
