Company Law Reform and the Board of Trade, 1929–1943

Abstract

The accounting provisions of the Companies Act 1929 were very permissive. Through the 1930s and early 1940s a substantial volume of criticism was directed at these provisions and an active campaign for their reform was waged. Reform was only forthcoming, however, after 1945 under the influence of the report of the Cohen Company Law Amendment Committee. The government department responsible for managing the reform was the Board of Trade. The records of the Board of Trade reveal that through the 1930s there had been several internal inquiries into the need for reform of the law relating to accounting. None of these had led to any change. In late 1942, however, the Board of Trade initiated an inquiry into company law reform and a major part of the explanation for this initiative appears to lie in the change in attitudes towards the social obligations of companies that had been stimulated by the Second World War.

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