: 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
:
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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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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