ABSTRACT
In British history, the first corporations were organisations acting under charters issued by governments or monarchs to fulfil a particular task, such as hospitals or universities. Amongst the first recognised companies to be chartered for commercial purposes were the colonial corporations, established to open new trade routes and to settle new lands for the English, and latterly, British, Crown. The colonial corporation based upon a joint-stock model was created out of a common interest between the Crown and a small, wealthy elite. A series of Acts of Parliament introduced in the mid-nineteenth century was important in that it conferred the legal status of 'corporation' upon the joint-stock model, which was an economic concept. This chapter examines how corporations gained the status of legal personhood, and also the ways in which the 'corporate veil' enables real people to escape financial liability and social responsibility.
