Page:Henry Osborn Taylor, A Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations (5th ed, 1905).djvu/36

 § 22/.] THE LAW OF PRIVATE CORPORATIONS. [CHAP. II. called quasi-public corporations. 1 Banks and insurance com- panies form a class known as moneyed corporations. Beyond these, great numbers of corporations are formed for manufac- turing and trading purposes, and to them the term " business corporation" is most commonly applied. § 22/. With a few exceptions all private corporations formed for profit have a definite capital called the capital stock, divided into shares. 2 Ownership of shares constitutes membership in the corporation, and the owners are called stockholders or share- holders. And the subject of this treatise is the law applicable to these private corporations which have a capital stock. They include, for example, railroad and telegraph companies, banks and insurance companies, and in general all manufacturing, trading, or "business" corporations. Except for purposes of illustration, it does not lie within the scope of this treatise to discuss the law of municipal corporations or of charitable or other private corporations not formed for business purposes and having no capital stock. 1 But they are not public corpora- tions, and the fact that the state owns shares or even all the shares in such a corporation does not change its status. Bank of United States v. Planters' Bank, 9 Wheat. 16 904; Briscoe v. Bank of Kentucky, 11 Pet. 257, 324. 2 A mutunl insurance company af- fords an exception. Its members consist of the insured, who contrib- ute to a common indemnity fund. The company has no other capital.