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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

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The stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which helped create the economic world

Tim Harford tells the fascinating stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world.

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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy: Limited Liability Company

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Limited Liability Company

22/07/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy, Limited Liability Company

How some legal creativity has created vast wealth down the centuries

Nicholas Murray Butler was one of the great thinkers of his age:  philosopher; Nobel Peace Prize-winner; president of Columbia University. When in 1911 Butler was asked to name the most important innovation of the industrial era, his answer was somewhat surprising. “The greatest single discovery of modern times,” he said, “is the limited liability corporation”. Tim Harford explains why Nicholas Murray Butler might well have been right.

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon

(Image: LLC. Credit: Getty Images)

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