JOI 
of two or more things. The joints of the 
human body are called by anatomists arti- 
culations. The term joint is also applied 
to the separation between the stones or 
bricks of a building, usually filled with mor- 
tar, plaster, or cement ; also by carpen- 
ters, to the several manners of assembling 
or fitting pieces of wood together; as a 
dove-tail joint, &c. 
Joint, universal, an invention adapted to 
all kinds of motions and flexures. This 
was probably the origin of the gimbols used 
in suspending the mariner’s compass. By 
means of the universal joint, the pull of a 
bell may be carried to any part of a room, 
and made to act as well in one place as in 
another. 
Joint Stock Companies. About the 
time of the famous Mississipi sheme in 
France, and the South Sea scheme in Eng- 
land, there arose a sort of epidemic fever 
of speculation, and every one was anxious 
to join in some partnership, for carrying on 
speculations in foreign commerce or do- 
mestic trade, by companies of persons unit- 
ing several individual stocks of small amount 
into one common fund. At the best, it has 
been observed, that trade, so carried on by 
large companies, is not very beneficial to 
the individuals who engage in it, or if it 
were so, would be greatly prejudicial to the 
public in general, and to other individuals 
trading on their own capitals. At the pe- 
riod above mentioned, about 1718 and 
1724, mdny serious consequences ensued 
from this spirit of speculation, many frauds 
were committed by adventurers taking ad- 
vantage of it, and the whole nation was in 
a manner convulsed by the injuries which 
the people at large suffered from it, many 
families having been reduced to utter ruin 
by it. To prevent these evils occurring in 
future, the following enactments were pass- 
ed : stat. 16 George I. c. 18, s. 18, 19, 20, 
21 ; by which, after reciting, that whereas 
it is notorious, that several undertakings or 
projects of different kinds have, at some 
time or times since the four-and-twentieth 
day of June, one thousand seven hundred 
and eighteen, been publicly contrived and 
practised, or attempted to be practised, 
within the city of London, and other parts 
of this kingdom, as also in Ireland, and 
other his Majesty’s dominions, which mani- 
festly tend to the common grievance, pre- 
judice, and inconvenience of great numbers 
of your Majesty’s subjects, in their trade or 
commerce, and other their affairs ; and the 
persons who contrive or attempt such dan- 
JOI 
gerous and mischievous undertakings or 
projects, under false pretences of public 
good, do presume, according to their own 
devices and schemes, to open books for 
public subscriptions, and draw in many un- 
wary persons to subscribe therein, towards 
raising great sums of money, whereupon 
the subscribers, or claimants under them, 
do pay small proportions thereof, and such 
proportions, in the whole, do amount to 
very large sums ; which dangerous and mis- 
chievous undertakings, or projects, do re- 
late to several fisheries, and other affairs, 
wherein the trade, commerce, and welfare 
of your Majesty’s subjects, or great num- 
bers of them, are concerned or interested : 
and whereas, in many cases the said under- 
takers or subscribers have, since the said 
four-and-twentieth day of June, one thou- 
sand seven hundred and eighteen, presumed 
to act as if they were corporate bodies, and 
have pretended to make their shares in 
stocks transferrable or assignable, without 
any legal authority, either by act of Parlia- 
ment, or by any charter from the crown, 
for so doing, &c. : it is enacted, by autho- 
rity of this present Parliament, that from 
and after the four-and-twentieth day of 
June, one thousand seven Miundred and 
twenty, all and every the undertakings and 
attempts described as aforesaid, and all 
other public undertakings and attempts, 
tending to the common grievance, preju- 
dice, and inconvenience of his Majesty’s 
subjects, or great numbers of them, in their 
trade, commerce, or other lawful affairs, 
and all public subscriptions, receipts, pay- 
ments, assignments, transfers, pretended as- 
signments and transfers, and all other mat- 
ters and things whatsoever, for furthering, 
countenancing, or proceeding in any such 
undertaking or attempt, and more particu- 
larly, the acting, or presuming to act, as a 
corporate body or bodies; the raising, or 
pretending to raise, transferrable stock or 
stocks ; the transferring, or pretending to 
transfer or assign any share or shares in such 
stock or stocks, without legal authority, ei- 
ther by act of Parliament, or by any char- 
ter from the crown, to warrant such acting 
as a body corporate, or to raise such trans- 
ferable stock or stocks, or to transfer shares 
therein, and all acting, or pretending to 
act, under any charter, formerly granted 
from the crown, for particular or special 
purposes therein expressed, by persons who 
do or shall use, or endeavour to use, the 
same charters, for raising a capital stock, or 
for making transfers or assignments, or pre- 
