61–70 of 163 posts
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At that point why not count the British Empire as a business?
You could probably consider the British royal family a business. But even if you don’t do that, for a long time the British empire was a corporation — the east India company.
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Because it's a nation, not an asset-holding entity that is nation-agnostic.
The Vatican is a nation.
Sure, Australia Post is one of Australia’s oldest institutions if you count from the date of the establishment of its oldest predecessor (which this map does, as a Postmaster-General was first appointed for New South Wales in 1809), but a single national postal service wasn’t established until Australia itself was established in 1901 and the colonial postal services were merged, and even then it was a government department until 1975, and wasn’t corporatised until 1989 and remains government-owned to this day.
Regardless of whether you believe in them, I think the longevity of religious organizations points the way towards how the human race can plan and advance with projects that cannot be completed in a single lifetime. Projects that require a vision beyond 10 years, much less 20, are exceedingly rare. Very, very few companies last more than a generation or two. This map in the article might make it seem like there are l…
Sounds like survivor-ship bias. How many now-dead religions were contemporary with Christianity?
Regardless of whether you believe in them, I think the longevity of religious organizations points the way towards how the human race can plan and advance with projects that cannot be completed in a single lifetime. Projects that require a vision beyond 10 years, much less 20, are exceedingly rare. Very, very few companies last more than a generation or two. This map in the article might make it seem like there are l…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The oldest continuously operating university in the Western Hemisphere is in Peru, established in 1551. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_universities_in... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_University_of_San_Mar... The Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, in Mexico City, was founded several months later, the same year.
If I were feeling pedantic I'd mention the universities of Oxford, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen... As well as a handful in Spain and Portugal ;)
I think that the crown of the oldest running business should go to the Roman Catholic Church, which was formally created in 325 AD, but in practice is a couple of centuries older. It is also the first transnational corporation in history.
The oldest company in the world on this chart (Kongo Gumi in Japan) is not in Business anymore. It seized operations in 2006 due to bankruptcy.