One 1855 law let investors risk only what they put in, not everything they owned

Before Britain's Limited Liability Act of 1855, backing a failing company could cost shareholders their entire personal fortune, not just their investment. The Act capped their losses at what they'd put in — a change critics at the time warned would invite reckless speculation. It became the template for the modern public company, letting strangers pool capital without pooling risk.

— John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea — 2003, chapter on the rise of limited liability
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