OK, then why was it that for so long a new joint stock company's creation required a charter from the monarch or parliament, etc, and not just anybody could get

OK, then why was it that for so long a new joint stock company's creation required a charter from the monarch or parliament, etc, and not just anybody could get it (as today)? It was obviously seen as a valuable and scarce privilege, not a right. Choosing to bestow that privilege to anyone for any purpose they wish is a conscious tradeoff that our society makes, nothing natural about it. The upside as you keep mentioning is it's convenient to run the enterprise this way, allowing it to reach a larger scale. The downside to society is the risk that this greater power enables the creation of organizations that rival the state in power -- which is probably why originally, charters specified a limited purpose for the company. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint-stock_company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint-stock_company