Attempts to Form Chartered Companies. 41 



to those of Swedish manufacture, there was much to be done by 

 way of improvement, and a further expenditure would be re- 

 quired for the regular production of these commodities on a 

 large scale, in view of a more or less constant demand for high- 

 class goods. The distin'ction between a joint-stock company 

 and a " co-partnery " was that in the latter each of the partners 

 was liable for the company's debts to the extent of his fortune ; 

 while in a joint-stock company each subscriber was liable only 

 to the extent of his venture.^ It was chiefly on account of their 

 legal status that the Pennsylvania Company felt the need of a 

 charter of incorporation. But the government was not so much 

 interested in the merchants' point of view as in the making of a 

 good bargain for the nation ; hence, the fact that several private 

 contractors showed their willingness to make good ofifers with- 

 out a charter militated against the petitioners for incorporation. 

 The Board of Trade was so determined to guard against the 

 evils of stock-jobbing that it would have effectually tied the 

 hands of the company with provisos and restrictions. 



Inasmuch as the commercial policy of the day was not so 

 much to increase the nation's \yealth by increasing the wealth of 

 individuals, as to establish national power by fostering national 

 resources, the government, consciously or unconsciously, set- 

 tled the question by dropping the merchants and adopting the 

 bounty system, which, while it benefited the merchants as a 

 class, did not discriminate among them, but, as it were, distrib- 

 uted the inducement. By this action the government virtually 

 assumed the responsibility of developing the resources of the 

 American plantations.- 



^Rogers, ch. VII. 



^The methods which they chose will be described in Part II. 



