When joint-stock banks were first esta blished, each shareholder was answerable to the extent of his own property. By 1 Vict. c. 73, they were rendered liable only to the extent of their shares, but the liability did not extend to the sharehold ers as a body. By 7 & 8 Viet. c. 113, the liability of any shareholder extends equally to the whole body of sharehold ers as a company ; but if execution of any judgment against the company shall be ineffectual to obtain satisfaction, then any shareholder may be proceeded against. The acts of an individual part ner were formerly binding on all the other shareholders, but it is only the acts of an individual director or other officer properly appointed which are now binding on the co-partnership. [PARTNERSHIP.) At one time a great part of the foreign commerce of England was engrossed by chartered companies. An account of two of these companies has been already given. [HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY; EAST INDIA OMPANY.] There were several others, which have ceased to exist, whose operations constitute an important feature in our commercial history. The Russia Company, which was chartered in 1555, succeeded in establishing a trade with the Czar of Muscovy, and a year or two afterwards denkinson, a very active ser vant of the company, struck out a new line of commercial intercourse through Russia into Persia. One of the main ob jects of the association was the discovery of new trades. Before the close of the six teenth century the company embarked in the whale fishery at Spitzbergen, in which, as well as in their operations private traders, termed " interlopers," were not allowed to engage. In 1669, when the Czar had greatly reduced the privileges of the company or placed the Dutch on the same commercial footing, the associa tion ceased to be a joint-stock concern, but became what was called a regulated company, in which each person traded with his own capital. subject to the gene ral regulations of the association. The Russia Company was at the cost of main taining embassies. The Russia Company still exists, that is, officers are elected, and a dinner is annually given, which is gene rally attended by the Russian ambassa dor. The expenses of the company are paid out of trifling dues levied on imports from Russia.
In 1581 Queen Elizabeth granted to a company the exclusive right of trading to Turkey. This was the origin of the Turkey or Levant Company. Its exclu sive privileges of trade extended to the dominions of the Grand Seipor, whether in Europe, Asia, or Africa. Factories were established, and the company was at the cost of supporting an English ambassador at Constantinople, and consuls at Aleppo, Smyrna, and other places. Adam Smith
speaks of the Turkey Company in his time, seventy or eighty years ago, as "a strict and oppressive monopoly." The Turkey Company surrendered its char ter in 1825.
Several companies for trading to Afri ca were successively established in the seventeenth century, but from various causes they all failed. The company established in 1662 was bound by its charter to supply the West India planta tions with three thousand negroes annu ally. This was the third African com pany established during the century ; but it was broken up, as its prede cessors had been, and a fourth company was established, at the head of which were King Charles H. and the Duke of York. After the Revolution companies for exclusive trading were declared ille gal unless they obtained the sanction of an act of parliament, and the African trade was thrown open. The different African Companies had, however, been at considerable cost in erecting forts and factories, and maintaining officers ; and to indemnify the existing association, an act was passed in 1698 for levying a duty upon private traders to Africa, who were no longer to be deemed interlopers. In 1730 parliament granted 10,00C1. for the purpose of keeping up establishments in Africa. The trade was now entirely thrown open, and the powers of the Afri can Company confined to the govern ment of forts and factories. In 1821 the charter of the African Company was sur rendered and the company ceased to exist.
The South Sea Company, so famous for its association with a gigantic commercial nubble, was vested with the exclusive privilege of trading to the Pacific Ocean and along the east coast of South America from the Orinoco to Cape Horn. The company engaged to supply negroes to the Spanish dominions in South America under the Assiento treaty. [Assisero TREATY.] The privilege of exclusive trade to the south-east and elsewhere was taken away by 47 Geo. III. c. 23, and by a subsequent act duties called South Sea Duties were imposed on goods im ported from the limits (with some ex ceptions) to which the privilege had been confined. These duties were to form a guarantee fund, and were to cease when the fund had reached a certain amount.
Besides these companies there were the Eastland, the Hamburg, and the Green land companies, with some others, hut none of them were of so much importance as those we have just noticed.