Corporations did not exist when the US Constitution was written.
That isn't true.
The Hudson's Bay Company (French: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson), abbreviated HBC, is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. The company was incorporated by British royal charter in 1670 as The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay; it is now domiciled in Canada and has adopted the more common shorter name as its legal moniker.
en.wikipedia.org
The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch, literally "United East Indian Company") was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia.
en.wikipedia.org
Other trade companies of the age of the sail
* The British East India Company, founded in 1600
* The Danish East India Company, founded in 1616
* The Dutch West India Company, founded in 1621
* The French East India Company, founded in 1664
* The Ostend Company, founded in 1715
* The Swedish East India Company, founded in 1731
en.wikipedia.org
The alleged oldest commercial corporation in the world, the Stora Kopparberg mining community in Falun, Sweden, obtained a charter from King Magnus Eriksson in 1347.
en.wikipedia.org
Bowne & Company, founded 1775:
1775
Two years after the Boston Tea Party protests British taxes on international commerce, Robert Bowne opens Bowne & Co. at 39 Queen Street (now Pearl Street), in New York City. He sells writing papers, account books, quills and pens, binding and printing materials, cloth, powder, furs, nails, glass and dry goods, pitch pine boards and cutlery. Within a few years, actual printing is added to Bowne's business services.
1784
After the American colonies win their independence in 1781, Robert Bowne joins Alexander Hamilton and other men of business to found the Bank of New York, the city's first bank. Robert Bowne hires a young John Jacob Astor at $2 per week.
1791
Robert Bowne and others found the Inland Navigation Co., helping to open the American interior to commerce. This leads directly to the building of the Erie Canal, completed in 1825, which will help turn New York City into a financial capital.
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bowne.com
1792: The Bank of New York was the first corporate stock to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
en.wikipedia.org
1792
After a series of meetings in Philadelphia's Independence Hall, a group of prominent citizens forms the Insurance Company of North America (INA). INA is the first marine insurance company in the United States, and it will remain the nation's oldest stockholder-owned insurer.
INA issues marine policies #1 and #2, insuring the hull and cargo of the ship America on a voyage from Philadelphia to Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
1794
INA issues its first life policy, insuring a sea captain against death during a voyage. The policy includes a clause promising benefits if the captain is captured by Barbary Coast pirates.
The Pennsylvania legislature approves a bill to incorporate the Insurance Company of North America, authorizing the writing of marine, fire and life policies.
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cigna.com
1792: Union Bank becomes the third bank chartered in Boston.
fundinguniverse.com
In 1787, the Maryland Legislature passed an act incorporating the Baltimore Fire Insurance Company, later called the Maryland Fire Insurance Company ... The year was 1794. George Washington was president. Franklin Street was the city's northern boundary. Bel Air was a tiny village of 157 people in an undeveloped frontier. Baltimore was a small but growing town, not yet incorporated as a city. On January 21 of this year, a number of respectable citizens assembled to establish a fire insurance company similar to that created in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin. This meeting gave rise to the birth of the Baltimore Equitable Society.
By February 10, 1794, a constitution had been drawn to govern the new company, the Baltimore Equitable Society for Insuring of Houses From Loss By Fire. Policy Number 1 was issued on April 10, 1794 to Humphrey Pierce on his three story brick house on Baltimore Street. By December 27 of its first year of operation, the Society was incorporated, making it older than Baltimore City itself, which was not incorporated until three years later.
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1794insurance.com
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In 1751, Franklin and members of his Union Fire Company met with firefighters from other brigades for such a purpose. Over several meetings, insurance articles were discussed, drawn up, and presented publicly. All interested in subscribing to the project were told to sign a Deed of Settlement. The first to sign, Governor James Hamilton, was the son of famed "Philadelphia lawyer" Andrew Hamilton (see Independence Hall). Directly below Hamilton's signature are those of Benjamin Franklin and Philip Syng. Initially, over 70 prominent Philadelphia citizens became subscribers. On April 13, 1752, these men came together to elect a Board of Directors and Treasurer, who met for the first time on May 11, 1752.
At that meeting it was affirmed that those subscribed had agreed to establish an insurance company by the name of The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insuring of Houses from Loss by Fire, and "to be and continue to be Contributors unto and equal Sharers in the losses as well as the gains." A dozen Directors were elected to the board. Franklin's name headed the list, followed by Philip Syng.
Syng, yet another of those extraordinary early Philadelphians, was an eminent silversmith and creator of the inkstand from which the Declaration of Independence was signed. In addition to being a vestryman at Christ Church and a member of the Philosophical Society, Syng found time to design the corporate seal for The Contributionship.
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