"A corporation is a business that, although owned by one or more investors, legally has the rights and duties of an individual. Corporations have the right to buy, sell, and own property. Corporations may make legal contracts, hire and fire workers, set prices, and be sued, fined, and taxed. A business must obtain a charter of incorporation from a state legislature or Congress to be legally recognized as a corporation."(Watson, p211) While corporations didn't exist until the mid to late 1800s, the idea of the corporation had existed since the early 1600s. It all started with English merchants who started trading companies to help fund the early colonies. If the colonies thrived, the stockholders reaped in the profit. (Watson, p211)A corporation is started when a sole proprietorship, a one-owner business, that is the most common form of business institution in the US, or a partnership, an association of two or more people in order to run a business, decides that they don't want to be personally responsible for any loss the company might have. (Watson, p211) Or they might decide that they want the company to "live on" after they die, that is for the business to have "unlimited life". Since neither of these goals can be reached with a sole proprietorship, or a partnership, the owner (or owners, as the case may be) decide that he (they) want to "convert" their business to a corporation. The owner(s) file a charter of incorporation from the government to be legally recognized as a corporation. (Boyd, March, 99) The owner(s) then sell shares of stock, documents representing ownership in the corporation, to investors. These investors buy and sell the stock to small investors, or stockholders. Since there is no limit to the number of shareholders to a company, the investors vote (for every share you own you get one vote) on a board of directors. The board of directors are in charge of hiring the people responsible for the every-d...
