Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/249

Rh and 45 3 20 14&quot; E. long. There are substantial Govern ment buildings and store-houses ; the garrison numbers about 100 soldiers; and a number of sugar estates have been formed, especially on the eastern side of the island. Before the French acquisition Mayotta was subject to Uansulu, king of the Sacalavas, who had been expelled from the north-west coast of Madagascar by the conquests of Radama, king of the Ovahs. Population, 12,000. 4. Mohilia, the smallest, is 15 miles in length, and 7 or 8 miles at its maximum breadth, with a population of 6000. Unlike the other three it has no peaks, but rises gradually to a central ridge about 1900 feet in height. It is governed by an independent sovereign resident at Douany, a walled town close to the coast, in 12 17 S. lat. and 43 46 E. long, The most important town besides the capital is Numa-Choa, All the islands possess a very fertile soil ; they produce cocoa-nuts, rice, maize, sweet-potatoes, yams, sugar, coffee, cotton, indigo, and various tropical fruits. A large number of cattle and sheep, the former similar to the small species at Aden, are reared by the natives ; turtle is caught in abundance along the coasts, and forms an article of ex port, and the fauna is comparatively rich for the size of the area. Population of the group, 65,000.

1em  COMPANY is one of the many words used to denote the association of individuals in the pursuit of some common purpose. Partnership, union, society, club, corporation, and company, all have this shade of meaning in common, although they differ from each other in many particulars. The suggested derivation of the word company (from cum panis) may be compared with the original meaning of gild. A gild was a feast, and the first associations named gilds, like the first associations named companies, had for their object the furtherance of a common entertainment. Corporation, unlike the other words of similar meaning, has in law a very definite signification. It applies only to an association which has been endowed with a fictitious personality, enabling it to sue and be sued, to acquire rights and incur obligations, without the individual members thereof being implicated. Company, on the other hand, may be used generally to describe almost any kind of association. In practice, however, it is confined to two classes of associa tions. The first are those joint-stock companies whose vast proportions and wide ramifications are among the most striking features of modern industrial life. The other are the livery or city companies, which still retain the name and the constitution, while they have long abandoned the objects of the gilds of the Middle Ages. See. Joint Stock Companies.—Commercial companies are a comparatively modern creation in English law. The com mon law appears to have recognized no privileged associa tions except those which were incorporated by charter, or statute, or prescription. All other associations, no matter what their numbers or purpose, were mere assemblages of individuals. A trading association was at the best only a partnership, and between large partnerships and small part nerships there was no legal difference whatever. Each of the members was responsible for all the debts of the associa tion, and all the members had to unite in instituting or defending any process of law. The inconvenience of such disabilities must have increased with the growth of trade. On the other hand, if the society applied to the Crown for a charter, and succeeded, it became a corporation, and the members were rendered irresponsible for its debts. What was wanted for trade was a society which might sue and be sued like a corporation, while its members remained personally liable for its debts. Joint-stock companies were regarded at first with great disfavour by the Legislature. In 1719 was passed the Bubble Act (6 Geo. I. c. 18). The first part of the Act, reciting the utility of the practice of assuring ships and lending money on bottomry, empowers the king to create by charter two corporations to deal in such ventures ; and all assuring of ships, or lending of money on bottomry by any other corporation, partnership, or society, is made illegal. Private persons, acting for themselves, may still continue to underwrite policies and lend money. The Act then recites the growth of dangerous and mischievous undertakings and projects, wherein the undertakers and subscribers have presumed to act as if they were corporate bodies, and have pretended to make their shares transferable, and enacts that &quot; all and every the undertakings and attempts described as aforesaid, and all other public undertakings and attempts tending to the common grievance, prejudice, and inconvenience of his Majesty s subjects, or great numbers of them, in their trade, commerce, or other lawful affairs ; and all public subscriptions, receipts, payments, assignments, transfers, pretended assignments and transfers ; and all other matters and things whatsoever, for furthering, countenancing, or proceeding in any*such undertaking or attempt; and more particularly, the acting or presuming to act as a corporate body or bodies, the raising or pretending to raise transfer able stock or stocks, the transferring or pretending to transfer or assign any share or shares in such stock or stocks, without legal authority, either by Act of Parliament or by any charter from the Crown, to warrant such acting as a body corporate, or to raise such transferable stock or stocks, or to transfer shares therein ; and all acting, or pretending to act, under any charter formerly granted from the Crown for particular or special purposes therein expressed, by persons who do or shall use, or endeavour to use, the same charters for raising a capital stock, or for making transfers or assignments, or pretended transfers or assignments, of such stock, not intended or designed by such charter to be raised or transferred ; and all acting or pretending to act under any obsolete charter, become void by non-user or abuser, or for want of making lawful elections which were necessary to continue the corporations thereby intended, shall (as to all or any such acts, matters, and things, as shall be acted, done, attempted, endeavoured, or proceeded upon after the said 24th day of June 1720) for ever be deemed to be illegal or void, and shall not be practised or in wise put in execution.&quot; And all such undertakings are to be deemed public nuisances. Although wholly powerless to prevent the growth of joint-stock com panies, the Bubble Act was not repealed till 1825. The Bubble Act is supposed to have been passed in the interest of the famous South Sea Company. By 9 Anne c. 21 the Crown was empowered to incorporate the persons interested in the public debt, with certain privileges of trade on the South Seas. By G Geo. I. c. 4 the company thus created was authorized to increase its stock. The supposed advantages of the company turned out to be a delusion. In the meantime numberless other speculations of a similar character were started, and in many cases pretended to act under charters which were either obsolete or insufficient for the purpose. The South Sea Company prosecuted these adventurers under the Bubble Act, but while it succeeded in exposing their real character it also helped thereby to weaken public confidence in its own. For a period of nearly ninety years the Bubble Act remained inoperative, but at the end of that period several cases under it were brought into court (Collyer On Partner ship}. At the same time, by 6 Geo. IV. c. 91 the Crown was enabled to grant charters of incorporation under which members might be made responsible for the corporation s debts. In 1834 the Crown was empowered to grant to com- 