[SJSAMPLE]

I didn’t know that.
Excellent info.

I was thinking of the etymology of the military unit title “company”, as it related directly to private “companies” of “contract” soldiers.

Our own military origins are strongly related to the mercenary tradition.

[Tallguy]

I was thinking of the etymology of the military unit title “company”, as it related directly to private “companies” of “contract” soldiers.

I'm not so sure. I think military 'company' and the commercial 'company' may simply derive from a common root. Alexander the Great had his "Companion Cavalry" that was made-up primarily of his peers within the Macedonian nobility. I think that the military organizational unit probably decends directly from that example.

That said, the modern corporation was born in the late Middle Ages at around the same time as the modern state. Terminology was probably pretty flexibly applied due to that simple fact.