Joint Stock company

1. BUSINESS PROJECT XI C
JOINT
STOCK
COMPANY

3. A joint-stock company is a business
entity where different stakes can be bought and
owned by shareholders. Each shareholder owns
company stock in proportion, evidenced by his
or her shares (certificates of ownership). This
allows for the unequal ownership of a business
with some shareholders owning a larger
proportion of a company than others.
Shareholders are able to transfer their shares to
others without any effects to the continued
existence of the company

5.  In modern corporate law, the existence of a
joint-stock company is often synonymous
with incorporation (i.e. possession of legal
personality separate from shareholders)
and limited liability (meaning that the
shareholders are only liable for the
company's debts to the value of the money
they invested in the company). And as a
consequence joint-stock companies are
commonly known
as Corporations or Limited Companies.

6.  Some jurisdictions still provide the
possibility of registering joint-stock
companies without limited liability. In
the United Kingdom and other countries
which have adopted their model of
company law, these are known
as unlimited companies. In the United
States, they are known simply as “Joint-
Stock Companies".

8.  Ownership of stock confers a large
number of privileges. The company is
managed on behalf of the shareholders by
a Board of Directors, elected at an Annual
General Meeting. The shareholders also
vote to accept or reject an Annual Report
and audited set of accounts.
Individual shareholders can sometimes
stand for directorships within the
company, should a vacancy occur, but this
is uncommon.

9.  The shareholders are usually liable for
any of the company debts that exceed
the company's ability to pay.
Meanwhile, the limit of their liability
only extends to the face value of their
shareholding. This concept of limited
liability largely accounts for the success
of this form of business organization.

10.  Ordinary shares entitle the owner to a
share in the company's net profit. This
is calculated in the following way: the
net profit is divided by the total number
of owned shares, producing a
notional value per share, known as
a dividend. The individual's share of the
profit is thus the dividend multiplied by
the number of shares that they own.

11.  Finding the earliest joint-stock company is a
matter of definition. Around 1250
in France at Toulouse, 96 shares of the Société
des Moulins du Bazacle, or Bazacle Milling
Company were traded at a value that depended
on the profitability of the mills the society
owned, making it probably the first company
of its kind in
history. The Swedish company Stora has
documented a stock transfer for 1/8 of the
company (or more specifically, the mountain
in which the copper resource was available) as
early as 1288.

12. The transfer letter dated 1288 through which
bishop Peter of Västerås re-acquires 1/8 of
Tiskasjöberg, i.e. Kopparberget. The original
can be found at Riksarkivet (National
Archive) in Stockholm.

13.  In more recent history, the earliest joint-stock
company recognized in England was the Company of
Merchant Adventurers to New Lands, chartered in 1553
with 250 shareholders. Russia's Muscovy Company,
which had a monopoly on trade
between Moscow and London, was chartered soon
after in 1555. The much more famous, wealthy and
powerful English (later British) East India
Company was granted an English Royal
Charter by Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600, with the
intention of favoring trade privileges in India. The
Royal Charter effectively gave the newly
created Honorable East India Company a 15-
year monopoly on all trade in the East Indies. The
Company transformed from a commercial trading
venture to one that ruled India and exploited its
resources as it acquired auxiliary governmental and
military functions, until its dissolution.

14.  Soon afterwards, in 1602, the Dutch East
India Company issued shares that were
made tradable on the Amsterdam Stock
Exchange. This invention enhanced the
ability of joint-stock companies to attract
capital from investors as they could now
easily dispose their shares.

16. FEATURES
 Artificial person
 Formation is difficult
 Company has separate identity.
 Continuous existence
 Control of the company is made by
directors.
 Liability is limited.
 Common seal.

17. MERITS AND DEMERITS
 Merits:
 (i) Liability is limited
 (ii) Chances are there for expansion
 (iii) Managed by professional people
 (iv) Continuous existence
 (v) Shares can be easily transferred from one person to another
person.
 Demerits:
 (i) Very difficult to form
 (ii) No secrecy
 (iii) No personal involvement.
 (iv)More rules and regulations.
 (v) very slow in decision making (vi) owners have less control

18.  The existence of a corporation requires a
special legal framework and body of law
that specifically grants the corporation
legal personality, and typically views a
corporation as a fictional person, a legal
person, or a moral person (as opposed to a
natural person). Corporate statutes
typically empower corporations to own
property, sign binding contracts, and pay
taxes in a capacity separate from that of its
shareholders (who are sometimes referred
to as "members").

19. THANK YOU
DONE BY
Sunny K S
Sohail Bin Masood
Sujith Jayakumar
XI-C
2014-2015