In today's society, both theoretical and practical discussions about the largest businesses, such as joint-stock companies, are still relevant and in demand. The purpose of this research is to analyze the process of institutionalization and formation of joint-stock companies, parallel to other related legal institutions, which is also caused by the aspect of subjective and objective factors from the 16th-18th centuries. The structure of the joint-stock company was not an artificially created theoretical model, its appearance being predetermined by a series of economic, political, social and other circumstances under the influence of which this organizational-legal form appeared and developed, gradually acquiring new features which are easily found in the specific features of contemporary joint stock companies. The problems of the emergence of the first joint-stock companies are debatable among scientists. Some believe that the main specific features of contemporary joint-stock companies can be found in the colonial trading companies founded in Nederland at the beginning of the 17th century, which is a hypothesis possible only because of their business successes, which attracted the attention of all of Europe at the time, or...