The history of company law in the United Kingdom concerns the change and development in UK company law within the context of the history of companies, deriving from its predecessors in Roman and English law. Company law in its current form dates from the mid-nineteenth century, however other forms of business association developed long before. Medieval business In medieval times traders would typically act through private law constructs, such as partnerships. These arose at common law whenever people acted together with a view to profit. Early guilds and livery companies were also often involved in the regulation of trade among themselves. List of organisations with a British royal charter Mercantile corporations As England sought to build a mercantile Empire, the government created corporations under a Royal Charter or an Act of Parliament with the grant of a monopoly over a specified territory. The best known example, established in 1600, was the British East India Company. Queen Elizabeth I granted it the exclusive right to trade with all countries to the east of the Cape of Good Hope. Corporations at this time would essentially act on the government's behalf, bringing in revenue from its exploits abroad. Subsequently, the Company became increasingly integrated with British military and colonial policy, just as most UK corporations were essentially dependent on the British navy's ability to control trade routes. Chartered corporations 1319: Company of Merchants of the Staple of England 1407: Company of Merchant Adventurers of London 1553: Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands 1555: Muscovy Company 1577: Spanish Company 1579: Eastland Company 1581: Turkey Company 1588: Morocco Company 1600: East India Company (HEIC) 1604: New River Company 1605: Levant Company 1606: Virginia Company 1609: French Company 1610: London and Bristol Company 1616: Somers Isles Company 1629: Massachusetts Bay Company 1629: Providence Island Company 1664–1674: Royal West Indian Company 1670: Hudson's Bay Company 1672: Royal African Company 1693: Greenland Company 1694, Bank of England 1634: Guinea Company of Scotland 1698: Company of Scotland South Sea Bubble A similar chartered company, the South Sea Company, was established in 1711 to trade in the Spanish South American colonies, but met with less success. The South Sea Company's monopoly rights were backed by the Treaty of Utrecht, signed in 1713 as a settlement following the War of Spanish Succession, which gave the United Kingdom an assiento to supply slaves and engage in limited trade in other goods