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chartered companies
chartered companies associations for foreign trade, exploration, and colonization that came into existence with the formation of the European nation states and their overseas expansion. An association received its charter from the state and sometimes had state support. In the regulated company each...
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public utility
public utility industry required by law to render adequate service in its field at reasonable prices to all who apply for it. Public utilities frequently operate as monopolies in their market. In the United States, public utilities are most commonly involved in the business of supplying consumers w...
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American Fur Company
American Fur Company chartered by John Jacob Astor (1763-1848) in 1808 to compete with the great fur-trading companies in Canada—the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. Astor's most ambitious venture, establishment of a post at Astoria , Oreg., to control the Columbia River va...
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leveraged buyout
leveraged buyout the takeover of a company, financed by borrowed funds. Often, the target company's assets are used as security for the loans acquired to finance the purchase. The acquiring company or group then repays the loans from the target company's profits or by selling its assets. Many lever...
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Virginia Company
Virginia Company name of two English colonizing companies, chartered by King James I in 1606. By the terms of the charter, the Virginia Company of London (see London Company ) was given permission to plant a colony 100 mi (160 km) square between lat. 34°N and lat. 41°N; the Virginia Compan...
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credit card
credit card device used to obtain consumer credit at the time of purchasing an article or service. Credit cards may be issued by a business, such as a department store or an oil company, to make it easier for consumers to buy their products. Alternatively credit cards may be issued by third parties...
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Kirov Ballet
Kirov Ballet one of the two major ballet companies of Russia, the other being the Bolshoi Ballet . In 1991 it was officially renamed the St. Petersburg Maryinsky Ballet; however, on its frequent tours abroad it is still called the Kirov Ballet. Often regarded as the foremost European ballet compan...
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insurance
insurance or assurance, device for indemnifying or guaranteeing an individual against loss. Reimbursement is made from a fund to which many individuals exposed to the same risk have contributed certain specified amounts, called premiums. Payment for an individual loss, divided among many, does ...
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William George Fargo
William George Fargo 1818-81, American pioneer expressman, b. Pompey, N.Y. He had been successively a postrider, freight agent, messenger, and resident agent (1843) for an express company in Buffalo, N.Y., when in 1844, with Henry Wells and another partner, he organized Wells & Company, the fir...
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British East India Company
British East India Company 1600-1874, company chartered by Queen Elizabeth I for trade with Asia. The original object of the group of merchants involved was to break the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade with the East Indies. However, after 1623, when the English traders at Amboina were massacred b...
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