Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/275

* COMORIN. 227 COMPANY. COM'ORIN. See Cape Comorin. COMOKN, kiii'iiKirn. See Komorx. COM'OEO ISLANDS. A .anmp of four Lirjje and a uuiiiber of smaller islands in the Mozam- bique Channel, midway between Africa and iladagasear, Ivini; lietween latitudes 11" and 13° S., and "lon'situdes 43° and 45° 30' E. (Map: Afriea, J li). The four larger islands are Comoro, Johanna, ilohilla, and Mayottii, the last of which, while belonging geographically to the Comoro grou]), has not usually been in- cluded with them. They have a total area of TCO square miles. They are of volcanic origin and mountainous; the highest peak rises to 8700 feet. The soil is fertile and produces fruits and some sugar. Cattle are also raised to some extent. The manufactures are coarse cloths, jewelry, and cutlery. The island of JIayotta was ceded to France in 1842, and the remaining ones added in 1880. They are a dependency of Reunion, and are ruled by native sultans, who are under the supervision of French Residents. The population is estimated at over 60,000, of mixed Arabic and negro descent, professing Mo- hammedanism. COMPAGNI, kom-pa'nye. Dixo ( ? -1324). A Florentine historian and statesman of the fourteenth century. He was long belieA-ed with- out question to be the author of a history of Florence from 1280 to 1312 (Cromica delle cose occorrenti nc' tempi suoi). In 1858 Fanfani's Piovano Arlolto cast doubt upon the genuineness of the chronicle, and in 1874 P. Seheft'er-Boich- crst's Florentiner Studien sought definitely to prove its spuriousness. A paper war was waged over the matter, some maintaining that the work is wholly spurious, others that it is wholly genuine, while a third party contended that it is in the main genuine, but is in parts disfigured by later interpolations, abbreviations, and changes. Since the appearance of Del Lunge's Dino Comijacjni e la sua croiiacn (1879- 87 ), the last-named has been the generally- accepted opinion. Synionds {The Age of the Despots, London, 1875) dismisses the question in a foot-note, and thus chai'acterizcs Compagni and his work: "He was a man of the same stamp as Dante. ... He undertook to nar- rate the civic quarrels of his times, and to show how the commonwealth of Florence was brought to ruin by the selfishness of her own citizens; nor can his 'Chronicle' be surpassed for the live- liness of its delineation, the graphic clearness of its characters, and the aciite anal.vsis which lays bare the whole political situation." COMPANION (Dutch kompnnje, Fr. ro»i- pinniie. company, crew; influenced in popular ety- mcdog^' by Eng, companion, comrade). The sky- light or cover to quarter-deck hatches through which the light passes to the deck below. Com- panions are usually removable. With the disap- pearance of old-fashioned ships, the name has fallen into disuse. The companion ladder is the ladder leading from the quarter-deck to the deck below, and the companion-u'ay is the hatch (to- gether with its deck-house, if there be any) through which the companion ladder leads. COMPANY (from Fr. compafinie. OF. com- panie. It. conipafinia, from Lat com-, together ■+■ panis. bread), A number of persons associ- ated together in a joint enterprise, usually of a mercantile character. Chartered Coiip.xies. As a legal term, 'company' was first emi)loyed in euuuection with the great chartered companies of the period of adventure and c.xiiloration in England during the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. The essence of these comj)anies was the possession of certain exclusive jjrivileges conferred by royal charter, either a monopoly of trade with certain countries or regions of the eartli, or more or less extensive power of colonization and government; or, as was usually the ease, a combination of the two. These comjianies were of two distinct types, viz. : the trading company, to which in- dividual merchants were admitted on certain conditions, and then traded each on his own account ; and the joint-stock conqiany, in which the trade was carried on in behalf of all its members bv the managing board :ind officers of the company. The latter might be either incor- porated (in which case it difl'ered only in the extent of its powers and the chaiacter and range of its operations from the modern l>usiness cor- poration), or nnincorporated (in which case it was simply a great partnership, of the type known to us as a joint-stock association). In all cases, however, it was usual to vest in the company, or in its officers or niiinaging directors, legal jurisdiction over its members, and, in the case of the colonizing companies, a territorial jurisdiction as well. The famous company, known as the IMerchant Ailventurers of Eng- land, whose beginnings can be traced back to the year 1359, was originally of the type of trading companies, but was incorporated two hundred years later by a charter of Elizabeth, The East- land Company, the Russia (or Museo'y) Com- ])any, the Levant (or Turkey) Company, were of the same character. The great colonizing companies under whose auspices the first Eng- lish settlements in the New World were made — as the Virginia Company, chartered in 1609: the ^Massachusetts Baj' Company, chartered in 1629 — were of a composite character, being incorpo- rated for the express purpose of founding new colonies, but organized for trading purposes on the principles of the regular trading companies. The East India Company, on the other hand, chartered in 1600 as a trading company, pure and simple, became a joint-stock conipanj' in 1612, and the Hudson's Bay Company, incor- porated by royal charter in 1670 (which, shorn of most of its ancient privileges, is still in active existence), is also for trading purposes a joint- stock association. The extensive powers of government, and even the legal jurisdiction over their own members, formerly vested in these old trading companies, have long since been resumed by the Crown. Their present significance lies in the fact that they constitute the beginnings and the founda- tion of the colonial empire of Great Britain. But the principles on which they were organized and conducted are, with some modifications, still recognized and acted upon in that country. Chartered companies for purposes of trade and colonization in territories not under the sway of Christian powers are still created, and some such companies of recent origin have played an important role in the history and politics of the l>ast twenty years. Among these may be men- tioned the Xorth Borneo Company, chartered in ISSl: the Royal Niger Company, in 1886: the British East Afriea Company, in 1888, and the