And really, to further illustrate the point: there are companies around today that have been around since the 6th century, mostly Japanese companies (who have the five oldest still-active companies in the world, founded between the year 500 to 800, ranging from hospitality to construction companies, and religious services).

The legal definition of a corporation is the partnership between multiple persons with the aim of generating profit and receiving a charter or legal recognition of their corporation that makes a single entity out of several individuals, the legal practice of such in Europe dating back as far as Rome. Among the Romans, entities such as the Roman State, its religious cults, burial groups, political parties/groups, and - drum roll please - its trade and craft guilds were all incorporated entities: corporations.

Of course the economic and material basis of when they operated was different then as it was today. But the point of the matter is that corporations existed "when guns were new" and much earlier, and some of them still exist today. [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiftskeller_St._Peter]There's a still operating restaurant even that served Charlemagne.[/url]