Question
Have corporate owned cities or countries existed?
Answer
This probably should count as having already happened, and increasingly LESS likely to happen, not more. In the past, there were far fewer controls on corporations and they could officially run armies.
Quite possibly Madras and Calcutta, both owned by the East India Company in the 17th century should be among the earliest. By the same measure, since India was a bunch of independent states at the time, the Nawabi of Bengal, a vassal state of the Mughal empire, might be the first company owned country, since in the wake of the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the EIC employee who won the battle, Robert Clive also managed to get himself officially appointed by the Mughals as the diwan (finance minister) of the puppet regime he installed in Bengal.
The Portuguese and Dutch East India Companies had earlier settlements in South and SE Asia, but the royal chartering structures of those made them pretty much agents of their respective crowns/nations (the Dutch case is rather weird, since the Dutch EIC, the VOC, arose in the aftermath of the Dutch rebelling against the short-lived Spanish-Portuguese joint empire, and the Netherlands at the time was a very weird confederation of decentralized city-regions). The East India Company was the first corporation that is recognizably more like the modern independent corporation than like a state venture, so it's territories are likely the best candidates.
Around 1779-81, the EIC's excesses in India had led to famine and collapse of the cotton industry in Bengal, causing a huge financial meltdown in the London stock markets known as the "East India Bubble." A bailout followed very much like what Obama did, and the Pitt India Act was enacted to control the corporation. After the revolt in 1857, the EIC was finally stripped of its special privileges and military powers, and became more like a modern corporation.
If you want a clearer modern example, the city I grew up in, Jamshedpur in India, was entirely built from the ground up by the Tata Iron and Steel Company (now Tata Steel) around 1905. The company still runs the city officially, including civic amenities, the town government (it's something called a "notified area committee" ... a corporate-sponsored body similar to a municipality). Around the world, corporations do this sort of thing where the state machinery is too weak to support city government, and are granted special privileges for basically doing the government's work for it. It has happened in America and Europe too, but not as much, since political modernization, urbanization and industrialization happened together in those continents, unlike Asia, where industrialization often moved much faster than the other processes in many regions (and still does).
Some of the best examples of this dynamic today are actually cities pretty much built by China around Asia and Africa, to further its economic/industrial interests (and military, to a lesser extent).
To complicate the answer still further, the basic structure of corporations actually derives from the "incorporation" model of cities. In other words, the idea of "municipal corporations" pre-dates "business corporations."
The HBO show Deadwood, is worth watching for insight into the dynamics of how cities and their local corporations coalesce together. The town of Deadwood grew up around small mining claims held by individual prospectors, until George Hearst, a mining magnate, rolled in and bought up pretty much all the claims.
Though the show is fictionalized, there is a memorable quote by Hearst on the eve of the first elections: "Elections don't bother me. They ratify my will, or I neuter them."
Quite possibly Madras and Calcutta, both owned by the East India Company in the 17th century should be among the earliest. By the same measure, since India was a bunch of independent states at the time, the Nawabi of Bengal, a vassal state of the Mughal empire, might be the first company owned country, since in the wake of the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the EIC employee who won the battle, Robert Clive also managed to get himself officially appointed by the Mughals as the diwan (finance minister) of the puppet regime he installed in Bengal.
The Portuguese and Dutch East India Companies had earlier settlements in South and SE Asia, but the royal chartering structures of those made them pretty much agents of their respective crowns/nations (the Dutch case is rather weird, since the Dutch EIC, the VOC, arose in the aftermath of the Dutch rebelling against the short-lived Spanish-Portuguese joint empire, and the Netherlands at the time was a very weird confederation of decentralized city-regions). The East India Company was the first corporation that is recognizably more like the modern independent corporation than like a state venture, so it's territories are likely the best candidates.
Around 1779-81, the EIC's excesses in India had led to famine and collapse of the cotton industry in Bengal, causing a huge financial meltdown in the London stock markets known as the "East India Bubble." A bailout followed very much like what Obama did, and the Pitt India Act was enacted to control the corporation. After the revolt in 1857, the EIC was finally stripped of its special privileges and military powers, and became more like a modern corporation.
If you want a clearer modern example, the city I grew up in, Jamshedpur in India, was entirely built from the ground up by the Tata Iron and Steel Company (now Tata Steel) around 1905. The company still runs the city officially, including civic amenities, the town government (it's something called a "notified area committee" ... a corporate-sponsored body similar to a municipality). Around the world, corporations do this sort of thing where the state machinery is too weak to support city government, and are granted special privileges for basically doing the government's work for it. It has happened in America and Europe too, but not as much, since political modernization, urbanization and industrialization happened together in those continents, unlike Asia, where industrialization often moved much faster than the other processes in many regions (and still does).
Some of the best examples of this dynamic today are actually cities pretty much built by China around Asia and Africa, to further its economic/industrial interests (and military, to a lesser extent).
To complicate the answer still further, the basic structure of corporations actually derives from the "incorporation" model of cities. In other words, the idea of "municipal corporations" pre-dates "business corporations."
The HBO show Deadwood, is worth watching for insight into the dynamics of how cities and their local corporations coalesce together. The town of Deadwood grew up around small mining claims held by individual prospectors, until George Hearst, a mining magnate, rolled in and bought up pretty much all the claims.
Though the show is fictionalized, there is a memorable quote by Hearst on the eve of the first elections: "Elections don't bother me. They ratify my will, or I neuter them."