Business Incorporations: Their Nature and Significance1

The study of business incorporations was undertaken with several purposes in mind. Incorporations—while they may reflect other things in a more or less significant manner—can give a very good picture of one stage of enterpreneurial activity. The large entrepreneur is, of course, better represented in the data on corporations than is the small businessman; and the entrepreneur of recent years is better represented than the entrepreneur of an earlier date, since at that time the corporation was less widely used. Nevertheless, one who studies data on newly chartered companies can see the development of the economy from an unused standpoint. Moreover, since entrepreneurs' ideas about business projects ought to be reflected in the number and character of business incorporations, a study of charters should add to our knowledge of the operation of business cycles. It should also lead to a better understanding of the corporation itself, since new light would be thrown on the history of state competition for the business of creating the corporations of this country. State rivalry for the chartering business has been a powerful factor in moulding the corporation to the changing needs of our economy. This adaptation might—or might not—have been brought about as efficiently by some other device, but that is a problem in itself.