This is a book about shareholders — who they are, what they own, how their composition and character has changed, and with it their relationship with the companies they own. It is also a book about shareholder rights and responsibilities. The book explores the key current corporate governance issues — company law and reporting, chief executive pay, regulatory and accountability requirements — against the background of an ever-changing business environment: an environment in which private investors may have grown in number, but in which shareholders influence has dwindled as institutions have become the dominant shareholding group. Throughout the book provides numerous examples and anecdotes illustrating the evolution of the joint stock company from the South Sea Company of the 18th century to the giants and cause celebres on the corporate stage in the 1980s and 1990s.