Joint stock company Definition
A joint stock company is a special kind of partnership. Such a company has a common capital called the stock. The partners in the company are called shareholders, since they receive shares for their contributions to the stock. Shares express ownership interest and decision making power in the company, and shareholders are free to transfer their shares to someone else without needing consent of the other shareholders. While a normal partnership also has ownership interest, the difference is that in a partnership interest can only be transferred to someone else if all the partners agree to it.