Corporation is characterized by its anonymity. Although it may possess private property and act as a contractor, it is an entity entirely independent of the natural persons who constitute the corporation. Historically the anonymity was rather a consequence of evolution than something deliberately designed. The origin of corporation is traced back to 18th century England and it was then transplanted to North America, where it evolved to the modern form of "stock company incorporated", now a dominant form of business enterprises. As the work by Berle and Means showed, the governance of modern corporations was separated from the ownership and majority of stockholders were interested in capital gain of their investment rather than in the management of corporations which they own. However, development of institutional investors who manage pension funds and merge and acquisition practices have again brought back people's attention to the relationship between the fiduciary standards of modern corporations and stockholders.
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