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I can't recall any mention of coporations in 40k, which seems like a notable absence in a universe that includes so many other dystopian tropes. I guess the governments are all too authoritarian to allow any challenges to their power that a large megacorp would present, but are there not even any small examples of them? Or are all 40k societies essentially command economies?

I know Rogue Traders are nominally corporations, but only at the behest and benefit of the Imperium. The only place I can really imagine them existing is in the free-market paradise that is Commorragh, where practically anything can be had for a price.

Are there any Dark Eldar corporations that exist? Or do other races have examples of notable large ones? (as in, not just random bar owners on a space station)

They are out there but tend to be on single planets or systems. Remember that anything that is deemed technological heresy is met with *blam*. It seems like just about the best you can do is be a trader, dealing in what are essentially commonly used or luxury goods.

Also remember that the rogue traders are very very rich. Owning your own spaceship is not a cheap thing at all. I think the issue is that once you are rich, you can't really "go into politics" or "shape your world the way you desire" because once you start to step out of lines of... what Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Ministorum, or the Inquisiton dictates you cannot do, then *blam*. There are guilds and other things for various crafts and productions but I think those who wish to climb high under their own rules, keep a low profile. Once you start to become flashy you attract interest and questions.

They appear in Dan Abnet's Gaunt Ghost series to some extent (Necropilis may be the best example). They appear to mostly family run enterprises, or merchant collectives. Not a lot of LLC being set up in the 40K universe.

It's a good point that in the IoM, research and development isn't really allowed, so it's hard to create competition when you can only offer the same products as your rivals. And as inter-system travel is controlled by the IoM due to their monopoly on Navigators, then I guess no corporation could do anything more than gain power in a single system. And only then in trading commodities.

As the IoM is so corrupt, I imagine most bribe their way to monopolies too, so there's no real scope for intrigue. They have no domestic competition, and trying to expand outside their system is impossible, and would be suicidal even if they tried, as they'd know they could never match the resources of the IoM in taking and holding a planet.

The Eldar are ascetics, so don't really need things other than what's necessary for their tasks. The Orks have a guild and caste system of artisans. The Necrons are, like the Eldar, post-scarcity. Chaos just steals what they need. The Tau are space-communists. They Tyranids obviously have no need for companies.

I guess that just leaves the Dark Eldar sects. Like Chaos, they'll usually plunder what they need, and like the Necrons and Eldar, have tech to effortlessly produce the rest, but I imagine they likely have a line in selling illicit goods like xenos weaponry/slaves/drugs to non-Eldar, so the closest thing to a corporation is probably a particularly trade focussed Dark Eldar Kabal, but that's more like a black market than anything else.

Hierophant wrote:
It's a good point that in the IoM, research and development isn't really allowed, so it's hard to create competition when you can only offer the same products as your rivals.

That depends on what you mean by Research and Development.

Technology is mostly rigid and inflexible in terms of coming up with new technology. But coming up with new applications isn't a problem. Nor is using existing technology in a new way. STC technology is also where the primary focus of the dogma centers. There is however a LOT of non-STC technology that isn't revered.

Stuff that isn't electronic in nature, or overly complicated, is going to be fine to tinker with. Furniture, household items, various chemical products, local natural resources, etc... are all areas a corporation or corporations could easily thrive and compete in. You come up with some better kitchen knives.

Or maybe a new more convenient ergonomic assembly for the personal Communicator. Its the same communicator as your competitors manufacture under license from the Ad Mech, but you offer it in 5 colors(all sanctioned) and 10 designs(all sanctioned) and you've managed to cut down the weight significantly, making it more attractive to the average customer.

Ceann wrote:
They are out there but tend to be on single planets or systems. Remember that anything that is deemed technological heresy is met with *blam*. It seems like just about the best you can do is be a trader, dealing in what are essentially commonly used or luxury goods.

Also remember that the rogue traders are very very rich. Owning your own spaceship is not a cheap thing at all. I think the issue is that once you are rich, you can't really "go into politics" or "shape your world the way you desire" because once you start to step out of lines of... what Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Ministorum, or the Inquisiton dictates you cannot do, then *blam*. There are guilds and other things for various crafts and productions but I think those who wish to climb high under their own rules, keep a low profile. Once you start to become flashy you attract interest and questions.

Fun enough, one of the ways they get rid of powerful political opponents on Terra is to grant them a warrant of trade; as rogue traders have a fair amount of power but are bound to uphold their end of their even forced bargain. They cannot be appealed as according to Imperial law there's currently no one powerful enough to overturn them (as they're sanctioned by the Emperor) and likewise they cannot be rejected.

The Imperium is a feudal system, and not a market economy, so large corporations can't exist. The closest you will get is trading guilds or an influential family or league of merchants. Those do play a role in 40k, but not on a galactic scale. They are usually confined to a single system or sector.

In Eisenhorn, there are trading and merchant guilds that are incredibly influential across systems and have their own standing militias.

Indeed. Corporations do exist -mostly under names lije "trading guilds" or "merchant houses" or similar medieval/fuedal grimdark name but corporations is what they are.

some big ones in the 40k rpg (like haelen-skarr) are important enough to get seats at the subsector cardinal's inauguration, ahead of lesser 'proper nobility'.

And they can have competetive advantage. Because the imperium is all about political influence a guild can be important - having sufficient clout to secure exclusive licenses to trade in a given commodity on a world where a single chartist captain wouldn't get through the door of the governors palace.

Equally, you want to manufacture stuff? You probably - if its reasonably high tech - need to license the pattern from the mechanicus. Want to secure a real advantage? Convince them to permit you access to the extra shiny mars pattern rather than the local forgeworld's m.34 easy-to-make knockoff...

plus, theres still a place for quality - not just in suitably ornate items, but in quality of manufacture: there is such a thing as a badly made mars pattern lasgun, and conversely such a thing as a well made one. House Van Saar, in necromunda, had the reputation of 'the high tech one' not because their stuff was discernably more advanced than anyone elses, but because it was made to a much higher standard (and was therefore both more reliable and more expensive)

As head of the planet, the Imperial governor has among other things the right of granting or denying access to space (as per Necromunda rulebook). These rights can be sold/rented. There is thus the appearance of some capitalistic monetary aspects. This is also backed up in the Calixis sector sources by FFG which depict a sort of financial stock market in one of the hives. However this capitalism seems to function at the level of noble house and cartels rather than individuals. Corporations might exist but there are barriers (such as high price or various etiquette or customary laws) to anyone except the nobles or other institutions buying shares.

Although there is interstellar trade and merchant houses in 40K, the feel is very much intentionally that of the medieval era. Trade contracts could last for generations. Chartist captains are described as plying the same routes as their fathers and grandfathers, year after year. At that point, it becomes less a commercial contract and almost a feudal obligation between the two parties. An agri-world could be transporting its crops via a Chartist captain to a hive world for decades on end, and the Chartist captain in return is either paid in the local currency as his fee (or perhaps takes a cut of the produce to sell for himself to cover his expenses) . Then on the round trip, he takes a portion of tractor and combine parts from the hive world back to the agri-world. This transaction may or may not involve cash if it has been formalized over generations. The same noble house could be his customer and therefore just supply the machine parts directly in exchange for the food, plus maybe some cash on the side for the captain's fee. This can take place entirely off the open market or in a ritualized fashion of gift giving or rendering up of service and goods like a giving of tribute. The Chartist captain certainly isn't really free to pursue speculative trade on his own with his ship's cargo. He might try trading in some curios or small portable luxury goods but that is more a sideshow of his own rather than the main business of the ship.

The trade we do see is almost always in the form of capital goods or raw unprocessed commodities. What consumption there is appears limited to the wealthy elite, and even then their luxury goods appear to be more the work of craftsmen rather than the mass production consumer goods we are familiar with today. The tiny (by proportion) segment of the population involved in the making of these luxury goods or providing the services demanded by the wealthy elite are not an independent middle class either.

It is also dependant of the local sector and its customs

As there is n o set way to govern, as long as the tithe gets paid

There are cooperation's and some may be powerful, but as long as the high lords of Terra allow it (or inquisitor) .

 Iron_Captain wrote:
The Imperium is a feudal system, and not a market economy, so large corporations can't exist. The closest you will get is trading guilds or an influential family or league of merchants. Those do play a role in 40k, but not on a galactic scale. They are usually confined to a single system or sector.

Those are not mutually exclusive systems.

Trading Guilds and Merchant Leagues are really no different than a corporation in practical terms.

the fact that the OP says 40k and not imperium of man I would say means almost certainly yes, though unless they have a way to travel the warp they will be of limited range, say within a subsystem or couple of solar systems trading amongst planets within the same solar system would also likely involve them (outside the imperium). I am willing to bet there are some corporation equivalents in imperial space but they would have very little influence on governmental matters (as it should be) . Really the only thing to my knowledge that the imperium cares about is that your world has no chaotic taint, and meets its tithes of soldiers tot he guard and whatever other demands they make be it lasguns made and shipped, bolter shells produced, caraspace armor provided etc.

I imagine a world that say puts together lasguns is going to be an industrial world and have a lot of urban areas so there would probably be some companies marketing to them and selling products and services with local currency, in a hive city there would pretty much have to be. On food producing planets though you likely just have a feudal system and people likely owned, so long as they meet their output required for grain or other agricultural goods the imperium could care less how they are accomplishing it so much less likely to have companies in that sort of setting.

Necromunda has the Guilders and the large merchant families such as House Helmawr.

 G00fySmiley wrote:
the fact that the OP says 40k and not imperium of man I would say means almost certainly yes, though unless they have a way to travel the warp they will be of limited range, say within a subsystem or couple of solar systems trading amongst planets within the same solar system would also likely involve them (outside the imperium).

There is actually quite a lot of mention of people "leasing" the Warp Drives in their ships from the Ad Mech, Dan Abnetts books make a fair number of references to this. That and Navigator's making a good portion of their income by hiring their services out to private individuals.

Rogue Trader Families themselves are effectively dynastic Corporations. Conducting commerce on a grand scale.

There's massive scope for corporations, especially in totalitarian or mercantilist societies. Remember, corporations are a government legal invention and not of the free market. They were originally created to protect investors from paying debts to creditors in the Netherlands over risky spice trading, which is analogous to Rogue Traders, whom you mention. Hell, economic fascism has labour unions, nominally private corporation cartels, and government working out prices centrally rather than any notion of a free, liberal market. For an even more grimdark feel, just replace with labour unions with guilds, and there you have it.

Some examples that spring to mind:

Government/planetary corporations, like a grimdark East India Company, with its own army, ships etc., but 100% under the control of the IoM, and subservient to whatever political authority you deem suitable. This would be very similar to Rogue Traders, mind.

Religious corporation under the control of the Imperial Cult, where most profits go to building MOAR gothic cathedrals, gilded gargoyles, and paying to have churches built on Terra, blessed by the clergy, then torn down and transported to the planet for rebuilding. Think 17/18th century Portugal/Spain. Alternatively, make it subservient of the Adeptus Mechanicus (either a ForgeWorld or an outpost), where most profits get funneled into scientific experiments, such as which incense calms Machine Spirits the best etc. Or make it a hidden Chaos cult, where the profits go "elsewhere." Or Genestealers. You get the idea.

Nominally private corporations and companies, but an oppressive statist government effectively seizes all profits and more in Atlas Shrugged Grimdarkly, removing any incentive to innovate and create value, condemning the common citizenry to a life of misery. Like Norway's Statoil on grimdark steroids, where all promethium profits go straight into bombing neighbouring promethium suppliers under the pretenses the other government mistreats its citizenry.

 ChazSexington wrote:
There's massive scope for corporations, especially in totalitarian or mercantilist societies. Remember, corporations are a government legal invention and not of the free market. They were originally created to protect investors from paying debts to creditors in the Netherlands over risky spice trading, which is analogous to Rogue Traders, whom you mention. Hell, economic fascism has labour unions, nominally private corporation cartels, and government working out prices centrally rather than any notion of a free, liberal market. For an even more grimdark feel, just replace with labour unions with guilds, and there you have it.

Some examples that spring to mind:

Government/planetary corporations, like a grimdark East India Company, with its own army, ships etc., but 100% under the control of the IoM, and subservient to whatever political authority you deem suitable. This would be very similar to Rogue Traders, mind.

Religious corporation under the control of the Imperial Cult, where most profits go to building MOAR gothic cathedrals, gilded gargoyles, and paying to have churches built on Terra, blessed by the clergy, then torn down and transported to the planet for rebuilding. Think 17/18th century Portugal/Spain. Alternatively, make it subservient of the Adeptus Mechanicus (either a ForgeWorld or an outpost), where most profits get funneled into scientific experiments, such as which incense calms Machine Spirits the best etc. Or make it a hidden Chaos cult, where the profits go "elsewhere." Or Genestealers. You get the idea.

Nominally private corporations and companies, but an oppressive statist government effectively seizes all profits and more in Atlas Shrugged Grimdarkly, removing any incentive to innovate and create value, condemning the common citizenry to a life of misery. Like Norway's Statoil on grimdark steroids, where all promethium profits go straight into bombing neighbouring promethium suppliers under the pretenses the other government mistreats its citizenry.

...I've got enough army ideas as it is. I don't need you suggesting awesome stuff like 'grimdark 40k East India Company' thankyou very much

Well, apparently the origins of the Canadian government is a fur trading company that had the rights to manage the waters of the Hudson bay & tributaries and the surrounding bay. I.e. most of Canada.

Considering the imperium's strong anti-fur stance, perhaps the Hudson Bay Star Fur Trading Company would make a good chaos foil to the dogmatically loyal East India Segmentum Company?

Truth time: at one point I was considering a Canal & River Trust (previously British Waterways) themed IG army. With the amphibious transports it just made sense, and I was going to paint / model all the operatives overloaded with equipment, safety helmets and of course high vis flack jackets!

And let's not forget that powerful individuals might wish to hire a bodyguard, some security experts or even a small army for situations they can't talk Imperial Commanders into handling. Imagine something like Blackwater or even less reputable headed by some retired bigshot making use of IG veterans, random more powerful human troops and maybe even some xeno mercs for special occasions. But not just troops, they also provide support functions through backroom deals and license agreements with the AdMech and whatever other authority can be bought off.

Large enough to raid minor Xeno worlds, small enough in the IoM that no one cares as long as you don't go around attacking Inquisitors in broad daylight.

Mercenaries are also quite common in the Imperium. Even the Imperium itself often hires their services, albeit somewhat reluctantly.

Ghosar Agri Solutions is one that springs to mind

 Grey Templar wrote:

 G00fySmiley wrote:
the fact that the OP says 40k and not imperium of man I would say means almost certainly yes, though unless they have a way to travel the warp they will be of limited range, say within a subsystem or couple of solar systems trading amongst planets within the same solar system would also likely involve them (outside the imperium).

There is actually quite a lot of mention of people "leasing" the Warp Drives in their ships from the Ad Mech, Dan Abnetts books make a fair number of references to this. That and Navigator's making a good portion of their income by hiring their services out to private individuals.

Rogue Trader Families themselves are effectively dynastic Corporations. Conducting commerce on a grand scale.

The Navigators are described in some places as essentially a large service corporation / guild. they have the advantage of enjoying a monopoly, which helps. I think plenty of the merchant ships that Navigators pilot are themselves owned by trading concerns run by the Navis Nobilite itself.

'grimdark 40k East India Company' is basically what a rogue trader dynasty is.

go out into the wilds on the edges of imperial space, establish colonies, trading deals, and lightly brutalize and exploit the indigens and their resouces in the name of the Throne (Golden or otherwise) is pretty much their standard MO.

locarno24 wrote:
'grimdark 40k East India Company' is basically what a rogue trader dynasty is.

go out into the wilds on the edges of imperial space, establish colonies, trading deals, and lightly brutalize and exploit the indigens and their resouces in the name of the Throne (Golden or otherwise) is pretty much their standard MO.

You're definitely right on the money there

I was thinking more the visual aesthetic for a Rogue Trader crew would be neat sort of like a very British-esque captain with a few elite Imperial soldiers backed up by a bunch of native auxiliaries

I've been hovering around this thread for a while now, been so busy that I postponed writing a response.

Corporations do exsist in 40k. As many have mentioned rouge traders, trade guilds and noble houses mostly fill the roles of corporations, but appart from that there's actually corporates producing and selling producs on an interplanetary level. Before going into the corporations however, it might be prudent to establish what is and is not available for corporates to exploit. Everyone knows that adeptus mechanicus has a monopoly on technology and stands for an overwhelming majority of the Imperiums production. Hence technology is not really viable for corporates to prosecute. The Imperial church has massive ammounts of reascources from tithes and such and has a monopoly on faith related matters. The Rouge traders have mandates which allow them to explore, trade and (most notably) settle new worlds. Hence a corporation would be in need of such a mandate to create settlments, though there's definetly ways around this. Let's leave this one as "possible but difficult". Next we have the adeptus arbites as the highest autoritiy on law and police issues. This however does not stop independent contractors from functioning as peacekeeping forces, though they will always have to answer to the arbites. Next on the list is probably the noble houses, who pretty much function as small states rather then corporations, though this varies from house to house. The Imperial guard have monopolised military efforts though mercenaries are not unheard of. Finally, the last big player I wish to bring up here is the adeptus adminastratum, which function as a sort of spider web and do a multitude of diffrent tasks that you would normally see corporates doing in a sci-fi setting. The adminastratum functions very much as banks, suppliers, stock markets, traders, councelers, statistic experts and lore experts all rolled into one. It is not unthinkable that the administratum would hire outside aid though, if a situation that called for such would arise. For instance, if food ration production would not meet the quota and a local corporation would be able to offer more outside of the regular thithes the adminastratum might very well buy them.

In short: Most corporate intrests are handled by the state (through the various adeptus and institutions).

Now that we've formed a list let's look into the big glaring holes in it. I'll break the next part up a bit to make it easier to follow (don't worry if you found the previous piece a tad difficult).
Indipendent contractors: Mercenaries, local law enforcers, traders, experts in their fields and so on all fall within this. It's the ones that the adeptus stand something to gain from working with and might hire for specific occasions. Mostly an imperial institution is supposed to be able to handle themselves but where there's money there's going to be people selling and buying services. Examples of this are the bounty hunters frequently mentioned in Ravenor. Independent contractors most commonly hired by the adeptus arbites to bring in enemies of the Imperium. Another example is mercenaries often hired by rouge traders or the nobility to use as private armies. Every planetary governor is (among other things) tasked to supply tithe and defend his planet with a pdf. There's nothing stopping said governor from bolstering his defences with mercenaries however.
Traders: This is probably the most obvious form of corporations in 40k. Merchant guilds and such that doesn't quite reach the level of noble houses fall under this catagory. I won't expand on it further since it's been covered well in this thread.
Local business: This is all from production that doesn't require or attract the notice of the adeptus. Bars, foodplaces, lodging houses, basicly any need a human may have that is not state provided. Theese are usually planetary bound though and hence does not attract alot of attention.
entertainment industry This is the big one. Out of all the imperial institutions entertainment is not covered at all. Appart from what can be derieved from the Imperial church pasttimes simply is not provided in the Imperium by the state, with the exception of propaganda of course. Yet we know that movies, books, porn, magazines and such are created and distributed on an interplanitary level. A good example of this is the frequently mentioned guide to interplanitary tourists in the Ciaphas Cain books. A guide aimed at a middle/high class of citizens with a single travel entusiast writer behind it. Inquisitor Amberly Vail comonly makes references to it in order to bring up information about certain systems or situation Cain finds himself in. We know that artworks (of non church-matters) are prized among the nobility. So where are all theese commodities comming from? Well, most likely book publishers and such functions like corporations. Either getting hired for specific jobs by the adeptus or trying to hit it big through what they produce, selling their products. Any Imperial guard commander could probably see the possible boosts of having propaganda theemed cinema available to his troops. So whilst the Imperium at large does not care for the wellbeing of the little man, the little man does and is willing to pay for it. If such well being, as for instance is provided by as simple a commodity as books, can sell there will be people writing and gaining money from it. We know certain sports, such as maze running and wildlife hunting, are practised in the Imperium but are not endorsed by the adeptus. Such sports usually has a noble house at the end of it's money chains pulling strings, but the ones staging it are usually their own corporations. Examples of this can be found in Shria Calpurcia series.

There's two reasons that corporations have a hard time in the Imperium. The first is that they can never compete with the noble houses, adeptus or the Impeial church in terms of revenue and so will always be checked against their intrests. Most likely once a corporate becomes big enough it will be assimilated into one of theese factions or, in rare cases, form it's own new noble house.
The second reason is the lack of a unifying currency within the Imperium. In rare cases a sector has a single currency, with only certain worlds falling outside of said norm (see the calixis sector of FF DH 1ed), however this must be viewed as the exception rather then the rule. As far as forge worlds and such goes it's debatable if currencies are even allowed. The cult mechanicus members can usually see to their own needs without the use of currencies. Hence any corporation that wishes to grow on an interplanitary level would have to deal with reasources, or other forms of value, which can be very difficul (nigh on impossible) for corporations with a single specialisation. Therefore it stands to reason that it's usually limited to what we would consider small scale in the Imperium. If you would view the exsisting Imepriums corporations in contrast to what we have on earth today however they'd probably be on a much larger scale, it's just that the Imperium itself operates on a such ludicrus scale that such buisnisses become nigh on unimportant.

Not even going to bother to spellcheck this one, hope you'll all be able to look past the inevitable spelling errors and such. Tired as a grox...

 AndrewGPaul wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

 G00fySmiley wrote:
the fact that the OP says 40k and not imperium of man I would say means almost certainly yes, though unless they have a way to travel the warp they will be of limited range, say within a subsystem or couple of solar systems trading amongst planets within the same solar system would also likely involve them (outside the imperium).

There is actually quite a lot of mention of people "leasing" the Warp Drives in their ships from the Ad Mech, Dan Abnetts books make a fair number of references to this. That and Navigator's making a good portion of their income by hiring their services out to private individuals.

Rogue Trader Families themselves are effectively dynastic Corporations. Conducting commerce on a grand scale.

The Navigators are described in some places as essentially a large service corporation / guild. they have the advantage of enjoying a monopoly, which helps. I think plenty of the merchant ships that Navigators pilot are themselves owned by trading concerns run by the Navis Nobilite itself.

Indeed. The Navigators primarily earn money by hiring themselves out to perform navigator duties. Which has in turn led to them being very wealthy. They have then reinvested that wealth into commercial enterprises, which naturally leads to more demand for their services which leads to them being even wealthier.

Such that the only real competition for Navigators is other Navigators. Given that there are thousands upon thousands of Navigator houses, there is actually intense competition. And even outright war between different houses. But the important thing is that Navigators are not a monolithic organization. The Navis Nobilite is an overarching organization, but its more of a self-regulatory agency that loosely oversees the Navigator houses. It doesn't have total control over the Navigators.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:
The Imperium is a feudal system, and not a market economy, so large corporations can't exist. The closest you will get is trading guilds or an influential family or league of merchants. Those do play a role in 40k, but not on a galactic scale. They are usually confined to a single system or sector.

Those are not mutually exclusive systems.

Trading Guilds and Merchant Leagues are really no different than a corporation in practical terms.

They are actually. A corporation is a single business, a guild or league is a group of independent individuals who cooperate with each other. In terms of story-telling, you can use them for the same purposes in many ways, but there are always going to be significant differences.

 Nerak wrote:
Everyone knows that adeptus mechanicus has a monopoly on technology and stands for an overwhelming majority of the Imperiums production. Hence technology is not really viable for corporates to prosecute.

But the AdMech is still only so large, and there is always need for more guns, tanks, ammo and other "simple" stuff. It does make sense to produce such things locally, even in an insane grimdark setting. Many non-AdMech worlds, especially Hive Worlds often produce such things in incredible amounts for themself and export.

There's room for corporations there - just as Warp drives are sometimes leased there's nothing saying you couldn't license the right to manufacture something useful. Or provide the facilities and labor to assemble the final product from parts provided by the AdMech. Items are produced to outfit PDF and IG tithes, the governor is pleased to make his quota, the corporation makes some profit selling extra production off-world and the AdMech can use (most of) their own guys for some more important project like a Titan or warship.

Exactly. The mechanicus holds "rights" to essentially all technology, and produces a lot of it - but other places do so too, under license. The houses of necromunda make small arms. Armageddon makes chimeras. Etc, etc.

The mechanicus controls this stuff by licensing rights to do so, and - in some cases - either embedding techpriests or retaining inspection/quality assurance rights.

said licensee could be a world, a family or a corporation, as appropriate. The mechanicus - like the rest of the imperium - thinks in centuries and millenia, so dynastic organisations tend to be common.