Despite evidence of global legal convergence in corporate law, Swedish corporate law does not recognize the interest of the corporate entity. Rather, the corporate purpose is explicitly defined as profit generation on behalf of the shareholders. Although this is not fully comparable to the normative stance of shareholder primacy, it is a stance of shareholder prominence. In this paper we trace this position in Swedish legal thinking regarding the corporation, and throughout history, drawing on Sewells eventful temporality approach. We find strong indications of foreign influence on Swedish corporate law, from its introduction in 1848 until the last revision in 2005, although the shareholder prominence position is linked to internal developments in the 1930s: contemporary legal thinking, conservatism of the legal profession and the economic disasters following the Kreuger-crash. This path dependent development led to an inert institution of shareholder prominence, strongly rejecting legal change.