71–80 of 163 posts
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It's distinctly 1996 here: https://businessfinancing.co.uk/the-oldest-company-in-almost...
On the world map, it's distinctly 1962. 1996 seems to be the correct date: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_Ecuatorial_Airlines
Regardless, with other entries in the 1990s, that's amazingly recent.
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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 ;)
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> the pre-colonial population maybe didn't have a culture of setting up long running businesses This assumption of an entire continent as having a single culture is something that I find cringy at best.
I don't think the above commenter wrote that all of precolonial Africa had a single culture, only that precolonial cultures evidently did not have cultures with long standing businesses - at least as we understand businesses them today.
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What leads you to select 325 as the founding year and not 1054?
First Council of Nicaea established church structure and Canon law. Also, we can trace the unbroken line of successive bishops to that date. The Great Schism of 1054 can be viewed as just a corporate split due to political pressure, which it was. It didn't seriously change anything about the business of the parent company.
It sort of did, though. Easier to define your own standards when you don't need consensus from peers, no?
In either case, I think it's funny to consider the Roman Catholic Church as "the parent company". It's a little dismissive of all other Apostolic Sees and sort of rewrites history a bit to imply that Roman Catholicism was the root of Christianity. Technically, you'd want to use the pre-ecumenical council of Jerusalem (year 50) and that nearly all modern Orthodox churches and the Catholic church share a starting date.
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Can you clarify on which orthodox church? Greek, Russian and Ethiopian all come to mind, but I'm not aware of a general middle eastern one (genuinely curious). Perhaps it wasn't called orthodox back then (prior to 300AD)?
Oriental Orthodox Churches: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_Orthodox_Churches Are probably the most "Middle Eastern", but apparently they, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Catholicism were all the same church until various splits happened, so I'm not sure if you can say any of them are "older".
England: The Royal Mint, 886
Scotland: Bank of Scotland, 1695
Ireland: Sean's Bar, 900
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.
Armanian Orthodox Church (est. 301) predates that slightly (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_the_Illuminator )
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…
Part of what makes religions last is bending to the changing times. A lot of the ones that didn't have faded away.
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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 ;)
Your comment got me interested in where the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (alma mater to Copernicus) placed in these standings which led me to this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_universities_in...