Re:List of oldest companies: Before 1300
by rplnt on Friday January 19, 2018 @11:45AM
(#16187586)
I think it's hard to argue it's the same company in some cases. The breweries in particular used to be a brewery in said city (the city had right to have a brewery). Different owners, different locations, later different legal companies, periods of inactivity, etc.. The continuity is lost beyond "there was a brewery in this town 600 year ago".
[ Parent
| on HN ]
The list is interesting entertainment but I am skeptical about how they determine oldest other than what a wikipedia page says in some cases.
It's not like we are talking about dates which have been certified by experts at auction houses for personal property.
Re:List of oldest companies: Before 1300
by zerokernel on Friday January 19, 2018 @06:11PM
(#16190818)
I'll just throw in here that faking contracts and certificates has been a huge business in the last ~1200 years or so in Europe. Many cities who claimed to have been founded a thousand years ago (or whatever) had to cede those claims since the historical papers were faked (usually hundreds of years ago).