Oldest Company

[Odinoneeye]

I work for a company that was originally established in New York in 1775. I love telling people I work for a company older than the U.S.

I’ve been told by my company’s press people that we are “The oldest company on the NYSE” (however we havn’t been on the longest, since we incorporated in the 60s)

So it got me wondering, what company has been around the longest? I mean in essentially the same form. I realize that companies are bought out, reorganized, etc. so maybe the question really doesn’t have an exact answer.

But I’m curious what’s the oldest company in the U.S.? The world? And for any non-U.S. dopers, for whatever country you live in.

[Tuckerfan]

There was a thread on this a year or so back, and IIRC, the answer to the world’s oldest company was a Chinese restaraunt that’s been open since the 12th Century.

[samclem]

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=46024&highlight=oldest+company

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=144433&highlight=oldest+company

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=244917&highlight=oldest+company

[Reeder]

THE OLDEST COMPANY IN THE WORLD?

*      MON., JAN. 18, '99 -- Kongo Gumi, a company in Osaka, Japan has origins dating back to more than 4 centuries before the current millenium even began, in Year 578.  The construction company, which has 130 employees and an annual revenue of about $100 million, specializes in building Buddhist temples.  Of last year's 30 projects, all but 5 were temples.  A 10-foot, 17th century scroll traces the 39 generations back to the company's start.  As in many distinguished Japanese families, sons-in-law often joined the clan and took the Kongo family name.  Thus, through the years the line has continued through either sons or daughters.  Osaka city officials who trace corporate roots have confirmed that Kongo Gumi is the oldest continuously operating business in Japan, and perhaps in the whole world.

http://garywolff.com/subdir/news_diary.htm

[Can_Handle_the_Truth]

According to the Hudson’s Bay Company FAQ :

**Is Hbc the world’s oldest company?
**
No. There are a few other candidates with claims to this title and it depends on your definition of company.

The (British) Royal Mint: According to the Guinness Book of Records. But this isn’t really a company in the modern sense of shareholders, etc. Guinness gives no date for its establishment and its own website says nothing of the kind. It produces an Annual Report - at Parliament’s behest - but does not seem to be a “company” of investors at all.

Sumitomo Corporation: Founded over 400 years ago by Masatomo Sumitomo (1585-1652), Sumitomo is publicly listed and includes such well-known names such as Mazda, Sumitomo Bank, Asahi Breweries, Mitsui OSK Shipping Lines, NEC computers and Dunlop tires. The history on its website indicates that it was family held for quite a while and it is unclear when it became jointly held. Its original business was copper-mining.

Stora Kopparberg: Copper has been mined in Falun, Sweden, for over 1,000 years, and two thirds of the world’s copper ore was produced here during the 17th and 18th centuries. The town is home to the Falun Copper Mine and its awesome Big Pit (Stora Stöten), measuring 100 metres (328 feet) deep and 400 metres (1,310 feet) wide. The oldest document about the mine, dating from 1288, shows that it was then owned by a company, Stora Kopparberg, in which shares could be bought and sold. Nowadays known simply as “Stora,” it is the world’s oldest company of shareholders. In the 17th century it was the largest copper-producer in the world, but nowadays the company’s interests lie mainly in the ownership of forests and the production of timber.

Based on this evidence Stora Kopparberg is probably the best choice for the world’s oldest company. Hbc is Canada’s largest department store retailer and oldest corporation. And we are the only one of the great joint-stock trading companies of the 16th and 17th centuries that is still in business.

[GorillaMan]

A few other noteworthy cases which I couldn’t see listed in those earlier threads:

Monte dei Paschi di Siena claims to be the oldest bank in the world, founded in 1472.

Although not companies (more like trade organisations), some of the London guilds are very old…the Worshipful Company of Bakers has a firm date of origin in 1155. The Weaver’s Guild was earlier, but as far as I can see doesn’t have a continuous history. For true British companies, it seems to be a tussle between the Whitechapel Bell Foundry (continuous independent existence since 1570, and a lineage back to 1420), and the Shore Porters’ Society of Aberdeen, claiming to date from 1498.

[peepthis]

The Economist had an article on just this topic back in December. It told the story of a club founded in 1981 called Les Hénokiens, a “fraternity of companies that are at least 200 years old, have stayed in the control of one family throughout, are financially healthy, ‘modern’ and are still run by a family member.” There are 33 members, and they meet once a year. Their oldest member is Hoshi, a Japanese inn founded in Komatsu in 718, but it does acknowledge Kongo Gumi as being older. To quote just a bit of the article,

The oldest European family business, according to Mr O’Hara and Peter Mandel in Family Business magazine (see table), is Château de Goulaine, a vineyard in France’s Loire valley that dates from 1000-and also boasts a museum and butterfly farm. Britain’s oldest family business, founded in Huddersfield in 1541, is John Brooke & Sons, a textile-maker that helped clothe Britain’s bravest during the battle of Trafalgar and the second world war, but has now abandoned manufacturing and turned its mills into a business park.

Not surprisingly, the oldest family firms in the United States are a bit younger. Zildjian Cymbal, of Norwell, Massachusetts, purveyor of cymbals and drumsticks to many of the world’s greatest percussionists, was founded in 1623. But that was in Constantinople; the family did not emigrate to America until 1909. A more authentic choice is the Tuttle Farm, which grows strawberries and vegetables in New Hampshire, and runs a small shop. It is currently run by the 11th generation of the family.

You can read the whole article on this site; just search for “Kongo Gumi” on the page and it’ll take you past the rest that’s in Hungarian.