[ftrobro]

Stora Enso has 20000 employees and roots in the 13th century. In the 17th centry Stora produced two thirds of all copper in the world.

"The oldest preserved share in the Swedish copper mining company Stora Kopparberg (Falun Mine) in Falun was issued in 1288. It granted the Bishop of Västerås 1/8th (12.5%) ownership, and it is also the oldest known preserved share in any company in the world."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stora_Enso

[bjornsing]

From Wikipedia: “Some observers consider Stora Enso to be the oldest limited liability company in the world”.

Interesting, especially considering that Sweden didn’t have limited liability companies until 1st of January 1849 [1]. Any ideas how this worked?

1. https://www.foretagskallan.se/foretagskallan-nyheter/lektion...

[throw0101d]

> Interesting, especially considering that Sweden didn’t have limited liability companies until 1st of January 1849 [1]. Any ideas how this worked?

Legal personhood dates back to (at least) Ancient Rome:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_person

Medieval guilds, city charters, universities were all forms of such. Liability would be implicitly included in such structures.

[nucleardog]

It was likely created by an act of government/royalty/etc.

The UK law formalizing the structure of LLCs didn't really come around until the 1800s. Think of how many institutions in the UK are older than that (e.g., Bank of England is from 1694).

Or for something that is a little more distinct from the government itself--Hudson's Bay Company in Canada was formed in 1670. Canada didn't exist yet and the laws weren't on the books. It was created by royal charter. It's currently owned by an American private investment firm.

[victorbjorklund]

That was when Sweden got a more general law of limited liability cooperations. There existed limited liability cooperations before that but they were created on an ad hoc basis by the government.

[ftrobro]

I assume the charter issued by the king in 1347 declared limitations of liability for the owners of the company.

[permo-w]

what is the difference between the Catholic Church and a business?

[ftrobro]

Roughly the same as the difference between a country and a business.

[psychoslave]

A business generally don’t threat its audience with post-life infinite burn in Hell if they don’t buy its product. Also they don’t impose celibacy to their employees. Oh, and tax exemptions, I guess.