World's Oldest Known Joint Stock Company

Reader Jeff sent me a most fascinating article about the first known joint stock company.  Many think that honor goes to the Dutch East India Company, formed in 1602 to wrest commercial dominance in the Far East from the Portuguese.  Instead, it turns out there was a grain mill in southern France that sold and traded shares, elected a board of directors at an annual meeting, kept meticulous records and paid dividends.  The formation of the Societe des Moulins de Bazacle goes all the way back to 1372.  Situated on the Garonne River near the city of Toulouse, the mill even made a successful transition from mill to hydroelectric dam in 1888.  It averaged about a 5% annual rate of return for its shareholders over a period of nearly 600 years.  The power dam was nationalized by the French government in 1946.  You can read an in-depth article on the Societe here.

The mill was a substantial facility.  Here's a nineteenth century (1800s) stereoscopic photograph.



And here is a more recent view of the river and the hydroelectric dam.