This is simply a collection of thoughts, facts and their respective sources. If you have any feedback or input please leave it in the comments and/or feel free to e-mail with the contact form.

What is a business? Beyond the literal definition, I expect the meaning of the word “business” to be different depending on the time period we’re referencing. So, we’ll dive into this in due course throughout this fact-finding stage. We will avoid as much as possible the exploration of the cultural variations in interpreting what it means to call an organization, or an enterprise, a business – as this would introduce yet another dense layer of this onion we’re peeling. We should also attempt to isolate the time period, though we won’t do that just yet, because commerce has certainly been recorded all the way back to Ancient history (Sumerians), through to recordings from the middle ages – so, we may end up exploring the post-classic time periods – often terms as “modern history.”

Oldest corporations

I have to acknowledge, I’m starting by summarizing a timeline thanks to this well-researched comprehensive blog article by Otto Vervaart.

1288: Stora Koppaberg
Location: Swedish
Industry: Mining (copper)
Records date back to 1288, placing this company as the oldest stock company.

1300s: Francesco di Marco Datini
Location: Prato

1200s: Société des Moulins du Bazacle
Location: France
Industry: Milling
Shares Traded: Market in Toulouse

1500s/1600s: Sumitomo (a keiretsu = business group)
Location: Japan
Industry: Mining (copper)
Took over a copper mine founded in 1591 by Riemon Soga in Kyoto