No, this logic is circular. You're defining a company as a thing that we've legally defined as a company, ergo you must have legally defined something as a comp

No, this logic is circular. You're defining a company as a thing that we've legally defined as a company, ergo you must have legally defined something as a company for a company to exist. That's not true, though - the non-legal definition of a company is "a commercial business." You can absolutely have a commercial business without a legal framework for it. People engaged in work and trade well before anyone wrote up a legal framework for companies.