trading company

noun

: a company organized to carry on commerce with foreign nations or in overseas territories

trading companies played an important part in the early settlement of America

—O. M. Dickerson

:

a

: regulated company

b

: a joint stock company for trade and usually colonization legally incorporated (as by the British Crown) under a charter granting the company rights to a specific territory within an area claimed by the authority granting the charter including legal title, a monopoly of trade, and governmental and military jurisdiction

c

: an unincorporated company with limited liability for its associates organized principally to settle and develop a land grant obtained from a legally incorporated company

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