Regarding http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mstockmarket.html
At some point it reads “Privately owned corporations came into being gradually during the early 19th century in the United States, United Kingdom and western Europe”.
None in Central and Eastern Europe? Why?
I think the dates and implications are a little compressed, because the original point of the question was about current stock market data, not about history.
I am not a specialist, but I think privately operating corporations are a lot older than the early 1800s. I can’t see the issue of monopolies as critical; what we now see as arms of the state generally started as private ventures which were taken over by the state. The monopoly was either an effective tax, where the corporation was owned by state or monarch, or it was the equivalent to being granted a patent today. By that measure the Corporation of London may be thought a privately owned corporation, and that was incorporated in the 1300s. I think that when entities like the British East India Company were being created it was a fairly common event, and that was, when?, 1600?
So to see why it was a Western Europe phenomenon you have to look at Western European history - specifically the expansion of Trade and Empire, and why that happened there.
Now I come to think of it, I would be surprised if there were not agreements corresponding to ‘corporations’ amongst traders in the East as well as the West. The stress laid on the West in the answer seems to be because Western Europe is where American company history came from, and because the major powers in the East tended to use a system of law which laid less stress on a written set of rules and more on the decision of a ruler.
Anyone got any better ideas?
Mogadon is right that the history was pretty compressed. The main impetus behind creating private incorporation laws in the US, UK and western Europe was that the Industrial Revolution affected those areas the earliest. The resulting boom in manufacturing and building (accompanied by the modernization of cities) created a huge demand for corporations, because for the first time entrepeneurs (as opposed to governments) needed huge amounts of cash to get their new mechanized businesses up and running.
Just to say congrats on the column, friedo! A difficult subject explained quite succinctly, so that even I understood it. 
Julie
Thanks Violet! I feel all warm and fuzzy now.
Thanks friedo, that makes sense – I was thinking about the great powers in central Europe (the Austro-Hungarian Empire for instance) and wondering why you limited your statement to western Europe. But it is true that the industrial revolution started in UK, and after your explanations above (guys needed money to invest) it all comes together nicely.