Beic was only a corporation in the most technical sense of the word. It became so powerful because the Queen had given it a government enforced monopoly from th

Beic was only a corporation in the most technical sense of the word. It became so powerful because the Queen had given it a government enforced monopoly from the start and the government kept extending that monopoly in return for loans and shares of the profits. The best modern equivalent would be Saudi Aramco, which also has its own "army", but it's meaningless to compare these sorts of organisations to modern uses of the word consideration. They're much closer to government departments.