
The 100 Oldest Companies in the World  - prakash
http://www.bizaims.com/articles/business+economy/the+100+oldest+companies+world
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ksvs
This is not a very meaningful list. They just take these companies' word about
when they were "founded." Often all that means is that there was someone in
the same place doing the same thing. It doesn't imply any kind of
organizational continuity.

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netcan
There's something by Douglas Adams on matter & partical & energy & wave-
particle functions and stuff.

He reckoned that 'stuff' is overrated, that of all the atoms that made up ksvs
10 years ago, virtually none make him/her up now. Whatever it is that you
think you are, it's not the stuff you're made of.

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lacker
This is a cool article but perhaps inaccurate data - the Wikipedia article on
the oldest companies in the world has a many entries that this article is
missing.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_companies>

Wikipedia has 26 entries before 1300, the article only 6. Notably (the only
one I'd heard of) Wikipedia claims the Affligem brewery started in 1074.

~~~
DougBTX
Apparently the author of the article did not read it before writing the title.
It is a list of the 100 oldest family businesses. From the first paragraph:

"Below there's a list of world's top 100 oldest companies that _represent
family business_."

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sdurkin
Catholic Church?

~~~
rkowalick
No matter how much they would like to think otherwise, the Catholic Church is
certainly not a family business.

~~~
sdurkin
No, no, no. I was going of the headline, which is misleading.

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gruseom
The book _Peopleware_ has a statement about an old company that stuck in my
mind for years as it's such a haunting image:

 _The few remaining employees of the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1651
and once the largest company in the world) now spend forty hours a week
filling out paperwork..._

If this were true, they'd belong around #45 on the list. However, I once heard
DeMarco and Lister (the authors) give a talk. Afterwards I went up to DeMarco
and told him I'd always remembered that story and was wondering where they had
gotten it, since they hadn't given a reference.

He looked at me for a second and said, "Did we say that?" I assured him they
did. He paused again and said, "Huh. Usually we only make stuff up for our
talks, not our books!"

(I don't have the book anymore, but the quote helpfully comes up in Google
book search: <http://books.google.com/books?q=peopleware+dutch+east>. I had to
add the last two words from memory, so they're just a paraphrase.)

~~~
felixmar
The Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602 and was the first to issue
stock. The company ended in 1798 when the government took over the company
after it went into decline predominantly due to wars with Britain and France.

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RobGR
It's a very interesting list. I would like to learn more about the old
Japanese firms listed.

As some of the comments accompanying that article noted, they did not mention
the Hudson Bay Company, which was incorporated in 1670 and still operates. But
they did claim to limit themselves to listing family firms.

It would be interesting to know if Japanese, Chinese, or Korean businessman
had joint stock companies or something similar before they came about in
Europe. I think the Chinese first did paper money. I read somewhere that
Koreans have some ancient and sophisticated "lending club" tradition that may
be the oldest expression of the idea of interest -- it is some sort of scheme
whereby each member pays in a small fee each week, and a certain member
receives all the money each week, determined by some formula.

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biohacker42
Specialty niche and/or very high end products.

So the only truly timeless business plan is luxury?

~~~
bjelkeman-again
The (former) Swedish forestry company Stora Kopparberg would have been no. 5-9
on the list if they hadn't merged with a Finnish company in 1998. "Stora was,
by one count, the oldest existing corporation or limited liability company in
the world. Originally known as Stora Kopparberg, it was granted a charter from
King Magnus IV of Sweden in 1347. The first share in the company is however
dated already in 1288 and mining in the mountain had started possibly much
earlier."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stora_Kopparberg>

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tlrobinson
They're missing the world's oldest restaurant, in Madrid:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobrino_de_Botin>

(I ate there last year, it was excellent!)

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hendler
Not to be confused with the oldest _professions_ in the world.

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danielh
So if you want to make a lasting impression, get into real estate or liquors.

If you fail, you have at least a roof over your head or a drink to keep you
warm.

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lacker
The oldest one I had heard of was Zildjian (the cymbal maker) which dates from
1623. And they say Web 2.0 companies can't last with unpronounceable names!

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michaelneale
I always thought it was a turkish word.

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cabalamat
Weihenstephan, the world's oldest brewery, was founded in 1040. Their beer's
nice too.

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zandorg
15 UK companies, including one in my hometown. Quite a respectable showing.

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helveticaman
Yes, quite.

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mattmaroon
Where's Yahoo? In internet time, they're roughly 328 years old.

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PieSquared
How d'ya measure internet time? Dog years, or what?

~~~
mattmaroon
Dogs age more slowly than websites.

