Part I
FOUNDATION AND OBJECT
Return A.—A statement of the date, ascertained or probable, of the foundation of the Company, and of the circumstances, so far as they can be discovered from its documents of foundation or archives, in which the Company had its origin.
Return B.—A list of the charters, charters of inspeximus, and other instruments of a similar nature whether originals or copies, which have been at any time in the possession of the Company, together with an abstract of the purport of each, regard being specially had to any evidence which it may contain as to the object of the foundation of the Company.
Return C.—A list of any trust deeds “founding, regulating, or affecting” the Company, with the date of each, the names of the parties thereto, and an abstract of the purport of each.
Return D.—A list with dates of any “decrees of Court,” whether of the Courts of Common Law or of Chancery, or of any acts of the Courts of Aldermen or of Common Council, “regulating or affecting” the Company, with a statement of the effect of each decision.
Return E.—A list of any other documents, not included in the descriptions in the preceding returns, which “found, regulate, or affect” the Company, with dates and an abstract of the effect of each.
Return F.—A concise history of the Company from the time of its foundation to the present day, with special reference to the inquiry contained in the commission as to “the objects for which the Company was founded,” and “how far those objects are now being carried into effect.”
Return G.—Has the Company a licence in mortmain? When was such licence granted (referring to the document by description)? What is its extent, and to what extent is it now unexhausted?
Return H.—Is there vested in the Company and how, whether by charter, statute, order of the Court of Aldermen, act of Common Council, or otherwise, any right of exercising superintendence over or any duty or discretion to encourage in any way any and what art, trade, or business? State the nature and local limits of such control. In what manner and to what extent is such control now exercised? If such control is not now exercised, state the circumstances under which its exercise has fallen into desuetude.
Return I.—A list of the charities, eleemosynary, educational or otherwise, which are under the management of the Company, stating in each case the name of the founder, the date and nature of the benefaction, its original and its present value as regards both capital and income, and the purposes to which the funds have been applied for each of the last preceding ten years.
The returns of the twelve Great Companies have been published (1884) in a Blue Book. I had prepared at first to transcribe certain portions of these returns from each Company; but the information after all belongs to bodies which are private rather than public. One can understand that a Company may on the whole desire not to set forth all its sources of income, nor its methods of expenditure. The Company of Grocers indeed entered their protest against an inquiry by the Crown, “without the authority of Parliament, into what has been judicially declared to be private property,” as being “without precedent, arbitrary, and a breach of the liberties of the subject.” Moreover, the returns are so voluminous that even an abridgment of the figures would occupy far more space than it is possible to give. They may therefore remain in the Blue Book open for the examination of any person curious to read them, and competent to understand them. For the purpose of this work an epitome of the history of each Company, and of the privileges of a Liveryman will be quite sufficient. And for these I am indebted mainly to the Report of the Commission.