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Bernard Rudden, The New River Company. A Legal History . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985. xiv + 335 pp. 2 plates. 18 figures. Tables. Bibliography. £20.00.

Bernard Rudden, The New River Company. A Legal History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985. xiv + 335 pp. 2 plates. 18 figures. Tables. Bibliography. £20.00. The supply of water to major cities is a topic that has not always received the treatment from urban historians that its importance merits. The affairs of the joint stock companies founded to provide water for the growing metropolis of London had a distinct effect on the development of the business corporation. Thus any study which seems to combine these two factors by examining the major suppliers of water to the capital should be of significance to both urban and business historians. In the main both groups will be disappointed, for despite many merits this book often fails to address itself to many of the problems uppermost in their minds. The key to the problem lies in the subtitle 'A Legal History'. The author sticks very narrowly to this remit. Thus, we are given a highly complex and comprehensive analysis of the complicated legal problems encountered from the company's inception in the first decade of the seventeenth century to its municipalization and conversion to a property company at the turn of the twentieth century. On the other hand, problems of water supply, hygiene and even general business matters are examined in a relatively narrow framework. At times, one wished to see clearer arguments of the wider social implications raised by the company's activities, even if it had been kept within the framework of a company history. In particular, a fuller consideration of the moves which led to the setting up of the Metropolitan Water Board would have been most welcome. As a legal history, the book is full of technical terms and at times the layman might find himself struggling to get to grips with the argument. In particular the chapter on the 'Crown Clog' the payment made to the crown in return for its original investment in the enterprise and the chapter on property and company law are both extremely complex and difficult to assimilate. At times one has great sympathy with the cliche of the law as a complete ass! The book, however, is not without its merits. The chapter on shares, tracing the progress of some of the company stock through various hands, is extremely interesting, although the legal implications of change are uppermost in the author's mind. Similarly the chapter on governance and finance yields much useful information after careful study. Thus the book must be given a guarded welcome. Any study of such an important organization as 'The New River Company' must be examined by business historians and historians of London, but both will find gaps in the book and hope for a future in-depth study. The legal historian will have no such qualms, and on its own terms this is a fine book and an extremely scholarly but weighty piece of work.