COMPANY, in commerce, an associa tion formed for carrying on some branch of trade which requires a greater capital than private traders can usually command, or which is liable to engagements to which individual responsibility is deem ed inadequate. In the infancy of com merce, almost every branch of foreign trade was carried on by a particular com pany, which generally possessed exclu sive privileges ; and such institutions were then necessary and beneficial ; but in modern times, when individuals have accumulated larger capitals, and the im provement of navigation facilitated com mercial intercourse with all parts of the wor'd, and the general practice of insu rance reduced the risk of foreign voyages to a regular addition to the cost of com modities, them are very few branches of foreign trade, which cannot be more ad vantageously carried on by individuals, or private co-partnerships, than by pub lic companies.
When companies do not trade upon a common stock, but are obliged to admit any person properly qualified upon pay ing a certain fine, and agreeing to submit to the regulations of the company, each member trading upon his own stock, and at his own risk, they are called regulated companies. When they trade upon a joint stock, each member sharing in the common profit or loss in proportion to his share in this stock, they are called joint stock companies. The regulated companies for foreign trade, which at present subsist in Great Britain, are, the African Company, the Turkey, or Levant Company, the Russia Com pany, and the Eastland Company ; they have, however, little more than a nominal existence, as any person may freely trade to these parts, without being a member of any company, on paying a very small additional duty. Theprinci pal joint stock companies for foreign trade are, the East India Company, and the Hudson's Bay Company ; the South Sea Company has long given up its com mercial undertakings, and the Sierra Leone Company has not yet acquired much importance. There is, however, a multitude of joint-stock companies es tablished, some with exclusive privi leges, but in general without any such advantage, for carrying on the banking business, for the different kinds of insu rance, for granting and purchasing an nuities, for making docks, navigable canals, tunnels, roads, or rail-ways, and for working mines.
The utility of joint-stock companies for many of these purposes, and the success which some of them have experienced, has frequently produced a disposition for the multiplication of such establishments, and an opinion thatthey might be extend ed to almost every branch of trade and manufactures. The rage for forming pub lic companies was, in 1720, carried to a degree of infatuation, which led thou sands to subscribe to projects the most useless or impracticable, and gave rise to such a spirit of speculation and stock-job bing as rendered necessary the interfe rence of parliament. In consequence of the act then passed, 6 Geo. I. c. 18, up wards of two hundred projected compa nies ended in the loss and disappointment of their respective subscribers. The recollection of this circumstance prevent ed for many years any similar attempts, till the frequency of subscriptions for making canals shewcd the facility of raising large sums in this manner for any public undertakings, and led to the for mation of joint stock companies for other purposes. In the course of the year 1807 proposals were circulated for establish ing six new insurance companies ; seven subscription breweries : four public dis tilleries; five genuine wine companies ; two vinegar manufactories ; a corn, flour, and provision company ; a united public dairy; a new medical laboratory for the sale of genuine medicines ; three coal companies ; a clothing company ; a lin en company ; a united woollen company ; a paper company ; two or three copper companies ; a national light and heat com pany ; two new banks ; two commission sale companies ; and a company for pur chasing canal shares, and lending money for completing canals. On the Attorney General proceeding against one or two of these intended companies, most of the others were abandoned.