The English East India Company traded with Asia from 1600 under a royal charter, raised capital from shareholders, ran its own army, and governed much of India until the Crown took over in 1858. Investors read it as the earliest large joint-stock company and as a case of a firm whose returns depended on political privilege. Robins's The Corporation That Changed the World treats it as the first modern multinational.
The East India Company, from spice trader to ruler of India: the first multinational.
Recommended by: Patrick Collison