Historedia
Episode 1 of 1

Adoption of General Incorporation Act

When
March 10, 1899
Where
Delaware
Part of
Event of 1899: The U.S. state of Delaware enacts its general corporation act that makes it the

Delaware adopted a general incorporation act on March 10, 1899, to attract businesses, following New Jersey's earlier corporate-friendly laws.

The act replaced the requirement for special legislative acts with a general process allowing anyone to form a corporation by filing articles with the Secretary of State. This legislative change aimed to compete with New Jersey for business incorporation.

Sources

  1. Delaware corporation Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-17

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.