ADI IGNATIUS: Welcome to 4 Business Ideas That Changed the World, a special series of the HBR IdeaCast. The debate over how much control to give to shareholders has existed for as long as there have been any. The very first firm with publicly traded shares, the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century, pretty quickly fielded complaints from angry stock owners who felt that the company was being run counter to their wishes. And in the ensuing centuries, managers and owners would tussle endlessly over the questions of ownership and control. Until the 1970s, that is, when the notion of shareholder primacy the idea that maximizing shareholder value…