Corporate History and Evolution

Since ancient times, man has been aware of his weakness and inability to reach the maximum degree of work and production.
So he turned to others to reach his goals of increasing production and achieving more wealth and money.
This is what led individuals to resort to partnership since ancient times. The company as an idea is not new today.
but it is as old as this world.
It was started by the first man in the form of cooperation with his family members.
It was also represented in the cooperation of families and clans with each other.
This means that the company in its current form is a product of the development of human thought throughout the ages.

Business corporations have existed since Babylonian times and were regulated by the Code of Hammurabi two thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
The Greeks recognized them in the sixth century BC.
The Romans also resorted to giving their money to those who would trade it with a contract called the contract of recommendation.
This contract is considered the origin of today’s recommendation company.
In the Roman era, the company was a consensual contract that was limited to creating obligations between its parties and did not result in the creation of a legal person independent of the persons constituting the company.

When the light of Islam dawned, it found that dealing in the company existed among the Arabs due to the need of the people for it.
Then the Islamic state expanded and trade spread and issues arose, so the jurists of Islam dealt with them and detailed their provisions and distinguished their types, such as permissive, proprietary, contractual, business and financial companies.
business and financial companies.
They explained what is permissible and what is not.
Then, with the frequent contacts of Europeans and their contact with Muslims in commercial matters, especially in the Islamic gulfs, especially between the Mamluk state and the ports of Italy.
The commercial legal rules were transmitted to them, so they codified them and made them as commercial legal rules for them, and their origin was in dealing with the commercial jurisprudence rulings of the Muslims.
Fair-minded Western Orientalists and codifiers recognize this.
For example, the Orientalist (David Santillana) in his article in the book (The Heritage of Islam, written by a group of Orientalists under the supervision of Sir Thomas Arnold, credits the renaissance that Europe witnessed throughout the nineteenth century in the legislation of Arab law and gave some examples, including companies) He said, “Among the legal issues that we gained from Muslim law are the judicial regulations of the company and some technical legal terms in commercial law, and this book was translated by lawyer Girgis Fathallah and downloaded for free on the Internet, and it is a rich book and worth reading.
When commercial activity increased in the Italian republics due to the expansion of its maritime and land activity with other countries, the company was considered as a legal system.
The company was considered as a legal system where the name of the director was distributed with the partners in the consulate of the merchants in order to announce the existence of the company.
Then the so-called public companies emerged, which are governed by a law that is independent of the partners.
It is based on the idea of the common interest of the partners, which is considered the nucleus of the idea of legal personality that companies currently enjoy.

After the discovery of new continents.
and the arrival of capitalism to the colonial stage.
The need for large capital began to benefit from the wealth of the countries to which the influence of the colonial countries extended, and a type of company began to emerge whose capital is divided into negotiable instruments known as shares, and these companies were known as joint-stock companies.
By the end of the nineteenth century, a type of company organized by the German legislator in 1892 AD was known as the limited liability company.
It came to fulfill the need of a group of merchants who are not suitable for solidarity, recommendation, or joint stock companies.

In the modern era, corporations have been given great importance at all levels due to their enormous role in the process of economic advancement.
Their rules and regulations have become at the forefront of commercial law.
while providing the necessary protections for them from those in charge of them or those who deal with them.
This is what we will address in other articles, God willing.