View source for List of chartered companies

{{Short description|Company created by charter}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Admiralty law}}

A '''chartered company''' is an association with investors or [[shareholder]]s that is [[Incorporation (business)|incorporated]] and granted rights (often [[Monopoly|exclusive rights]]) by [[royal charter]] (or similar instrument of government) for the purpose of trade, exploration, or [[colonization]], or a combination of these.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199730414/obo-9780199730414-0099.xml|work=Oxford Bibliographics|title=British and Dutch Chartered Companies|author=Tony Webster|date=25 May 2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=30 December 2018}}</ref>

== Notable chartered companies (with years of formation) ==

=== Austrian ===
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*1719 [[Imperial Privileged Oriental Company]]
*1722 [[Ostend Company]]
*1775 [[Austrian East India Company]]<ref group=note>The Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium), active in India.</ref>
}}

===British===
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*1711 [[South Sea Company]]
*1752 [[African Company of Merchants]] (abolished 1821)
*1792 [[Sierra Leone Company]]
*1824 [[Van Diemen's Land Company]]
*1825 [[Canada Company]]
*1825 [[New Zealand Company]]
*1835 [[South Australian Company]]
*1840 [[Polynesia Company]] 
*1847 [[Eastern Archipelago Company]]
*1853 [[Standard Chartered]]
*1881 [[British North Borneo Company]]
*1886 [[Royal Niger Company]]
*1888 [[Imperial British East Africa Company]]
*1889 [[British South Africa Company]]
}}

The article ''Chartered Companies'' in the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]], by William Bartleet Duffield, contains a detailed narrative description of the development of some of the companies in England and, later, Britain.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Chartered Companies|volume=5|pages=950–952|first=William Bartleet|last=Duffield}}</ref>

===Dutch===
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* 1599-1602 {{Lang|nl|[[Brabantsche Compagnie]]|italic=no}}
*1602–1799 [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC)
*1614 [[New Netherland Company]]
*1614 [[Australische Compagnie]]
*1614–1642 [[Noordsche Compagnie]] (''Nordic Company'')
*1621–1792 [[Dutch West India Company]]<ref group=note>The original West India Company collapsed in 1674, and the New West India Company took its place in 1675 and persisted until 1792.</ref>
*1683-1795 [[Sociëteit van Suriname]]
*1720 [[Society of Berbice]]
}}

===English===
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*1407 [[Company of Merchant Adventurers of London]]
*1552 [[Society of Merchant Venturers|Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers]]
*1553 [[Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands]]
*1555 [[Muscovy Company]]
*1577 [[Spanish Company]]
*1579 [[Eastland Company]]
*1581 [[Turkey Company]]
*1583 [[Venice Company]]
*1585 [[Barbary Company]]
*1592 [[Levant Company]]<ref group=note>Merger of the Turkey Company and the Venice Company.</ref>
*1600 [[East India Company]]<ref group=note>Became the largest colonial empire in the 19th century.</ref>
*1606 [[Virginia Company]]
*1606 [[Plymouth Company]]
*1609 [[French Company]]
*1610 [[London and Bristol Company]]
*1616 [[Somers Isles Company]]
*1618 [[Guinea Company (London)|Guinea Company]]
*1619 [[New River Company]]
*1620 [[Council for New England]]
*1629 [[Massachusetts Bay Company]]
*1629 [[Providence Island Company]]
*1635 [[Courteen association]]
*1664–1674 [[Royal West Indian Company]]
*1670–2025 [[Hudson's Bay Company]]
*1672 [[Royal African Company]]
*1691 [[Hollow Sword Blade Company]]
*1693 [[Greenland Company]]
*1694 [[Bank of England]]
}}

===French===
{{see also|List of French colonial trading companies}}
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*1604 [[First French East Indies Company]]
*1627 [[Company of One Hundred Associates]]
*1635 [[Company of the American Islands]]
*1664 [[French West India Company]]
*1664 [[Louis XIV's East India Company]] 
*1672 [[Compagnie du Sénégal]]
*1717 [[John Law's Company]] 
*1723 [[French Indies Company]]
*1785 [[Compagnie de Calonne]]
}}

===German===
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*1682 [[Brandenburg African Company]]
*1752 [[Emden Company]]
*1882 [[German New Guinea Company]]
*1884 [[German East Africa Company]]
*1885 [[German West African Company]]
*1891 [[Astrolabe Company]]
}}

=== Polish-Lithuanian ===
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*1783–1793 [[Kompania Handlowa Polska|Trade Company Poland (Black Sea Trade Company)]]}}

===Portuguese===
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*1482 [[Company of Guinea|Companhia da Guiné]]
*1628 [[Portuguese East India Company]]
*1888 [[Mozambique Company|Companhia de Moçambique]]
*1891 [[Niassa Company|Companhia do Niassa]]
}}

===Russian===
*1799–1867 [[Russian-American Company]]

===Scandinavian===
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*1347 or earlier [[Stora Enso]]
*1616 [[Danish East India Company]]<ref group=note>Governed [[Danish India]] from [[Trankebar]].</ref>
*1626–1680 [[Swedish South Company]], also called ''New Sweden Company''<ref group=note>Created in connection with the Swedish colony [[New Sweden]] (''Nya Sverige''); absorbed by the Dutch; presently in [[Delaware]].</ref>
*1649–1667 [[Swedish Africa Company]]<ref group=note>On the short-lived [[Swedish Gold Coast]].</ref>
*1671 [[Danish West India Company]]
*1721 [[Bergen Greenland Company]]
*1731–1813 [[Swedish East India Company]]
*1749 [[General Trade Company]]
*1774 [[Royal Greenland Trading Department]]
*1786–1805 [[Swedish West India Company]]<ref group=note>Created in connection with the colonisation of [[Saint Barthélemy]].</ref><ref name="pooooook-1994">{{cite book |title=Sankt Eriks årsbok 1994: Yppighet och armod i 1700-talets Stockholm |author=Björn Hallerdt |publisher=Samfundet S:t Erik |location=Stockholm |year=1994 |isbn=91-972165-0-X |language=sv |pages=9–10}}</ref>
*1738 [[Swedish Levant Company]]<ref group=note>A failed attempt to organise Swedish trade in the eastern Mediterranean region.</ref><ref name="pooooook-1994" />
}}

===Scottish===
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*1634 [[Guinea Company of Scotland]]
*1698 [[Company of Scotland]]
}}

===Spanish===
{{see also|Casa de Contratación}}
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*1728–1785 [[Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas]]
*1755–1785 [[Barcelona Trading Company]]
*1785–1814 [[Royal Company of the Philippines]]
*Honduras Company
*Seville Company
*Havana Company
}}

===Italian===
From 3 August 1889 to 15 May 1893 Filonardi was the first Governor of Italian Somaliland and was in charge of an Italian company responsible for the administration of the Benadir territory, called Societa' Filonardi.

*1889 – 1893 [[Filonardi Company]]

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Stora Kopparberg 1288.jpg|Share certificate of the [[Stora Kopparberg]] mine, dated 16 June 1288
File:East India House THS 1817 edited.jpg|[[East India Company|The British East India Company's]] [[East India House|headquarters in London]]
File:Coat of arms of the British South Africa Company.svg|The arms of the [[British South Africa Company]]
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[American Colonization Society]]
* [[Articles of association]]
* [[Articles of incorporation]]
* [[Articles of organization]]
* [[British colonisation of the Americas]]
* [[Certificate of incorporation]]
* [[Charter]]
* ''[[Collegium (ancient Rome)|Collegium]]''
* [[Congressional charter]]
* [[Government-sponsored enterprise]]
* [[Hong (business)]]
* [[South Manchuria Railway]] and [[Chinese Eastern Railway]]

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
*{{cite book|last=Ferguson|first=Niall|date=2003|title=Empire—How Britain Made the Modern World|publisher=Allan Lane|place=London, United Kingdom}}
*{{cite book|last1=Micklethwait|first1=John|first2=Adrian|last2=Wooldridge|date=2003|title=The company: A short history of a revolutionary idea|url=https://archive.org/details/companyshorthist00mick|url-access=registration|publisher=New York: Modern Library|isbn=9780679642497 }}
*{{cite book|last=Ross|first= R.|date=1999|title=A Concise History of South Africa|url=https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00ross|url-access=registration|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn= 9780521575782|place=Cambridge, United Kingdom}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Chartered companies}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090109044147/http://www.bartleby.com/65/ch/chartere.html Chartered companies]
*[https://www.fotw.info/flags/mz_col.html Colonial flags of Mozambique]
*[http://www.hbc.com/ Hudson's Bay Company]
*[http://www.worldstatesmen.org/COLONIES.html WorldStatesmen]
*{{PM20|FID=sh/126128,144560|NAME=chartered companies ambitions}}

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[[Category:History of corporate law]]
[[Category:Age of Sail]]