Borrowing on the Undertaking: Scottish Statutory Companies

Abstract

In this chapter Dr Anderson focuses on statutory companies (i.e. companies created by private Acts of Parliament) and the creation of security over their undertakings. These companies were vitally important in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for financing large capital projects, particularly constructing and operating key infrastructure such as railways, harbours and tramways, but they are under-researched and often overlooked today. It is shown that these companies could create security that approximated modern floating charges in some respects.