Definition
A moneyed corporation is a corporation authorized by law to engage in financial activities involving the lending of money upon pledges or deposits, or to issue insurance. The term historically identified a specific class of corporate entity distinguished from ordinary business corporations by the nature of its chartered powers — namely, the handling of money as a primary function rather than as incidental to some other commercial purpose.
In nineteenth-century American law, particularly in New York statutory usage from which both major historical dictionary definitions derive, "moneyed corporation" was a defined category carrying distinct regulatory obligations, tax treatment, and legislative oversight. Banks, savings institutions, loan companies, and insurance companies were its primary members.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No standard entry exists. The compound is not in active general use.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not defined as a distinct entry. "Moneyed" appears as an adjective meaning "having money; wealthy; consisting of money," as in "moneyed men" or "moneyed interest."
The gap here is categorical, not merely semantic. In ordinary historical usage, "moneyed" was a descriptor for any wealthy person or interest. In law, "moneyed corporation" was a term of art describing a regulated class of corporate entity defined by its chartered powers, not by its wealth or the size of its capital.
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Common Confusion
MONEYED CORPORATION vs. BUSINESS CORPORATION: In nineteenth-century statutory frameworks, these were formally distinct categories. A business corporation manufactured goods, operated transportation, or engaged in trade. A moneyed corporation lent money, accepted deposits, or issued insurance. The distinction carried real legal consequences — different incorporation procedures, different taxation schemes, different regulatory oversight. Modern corporate law has largely collapsed this categorical distinction into a unified framework with sector-specific regulation (banking law, insurance law) overlaid on general corporate statutes. Researchers encountering the term in historical sources should not assume it maps cleanly onto any single modern entity type.
MONEYED CORPORATION vs. MONIED CORPORATION: Both spellings appear in nineteenth-century sources. They refer to the same concept. The variation is orthographic only.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is essentially a historical artifact. It appears primarily in nineteenth-century New York statutory law and in the case law interpreting that law, and both major historical dictionary entries trace directly to the same New York statutory source: 2 Rev. St. N.Y. (7th Ed.) 1371. Researchers who encounter "moneyed corporation" in primary sources from this period should treat it as a New York-centric term of art unless the jurisdiction of the source is confirmed otherwise.
The research trap is presentism: assuming the term describes what we now call a bank or insurance company in the modern regulatory sense. In the nineteenth century, the category was broader and more fluid. Savings banks, building and loan associations, marine insurance underwriters, and various hybrid lending institutions might all fall within the statutory definition depending on their chartered powers.
For corpus researchers, the term clusters in several distinct areas: corporate taxation cases (where the classification determined which tax regime applied), ultra vires disputes (where the question was whether a corporation had exceeded its chartered financial powers), and regulatory enforcement actions under state banking and insurance statutes. It also appears in constitutional litigation over state power to tax and regulate corporations.
Connections within the Law Mind corpus run toward corporate formation materials (the classification of corporate types), but researchers will find the most substantive engagement in materials on banking regulation, insurance law history, and nineteenth-century New York corporate statutes. The term rarely appears in federal sources until federal banking and insurance regulation expanded significantly in the twentieth century — by which point the "moneyed corporation" label had largely disappeared from statutory usage.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary and Bouvier's Law Dictionary give virtually identical definitions, and both cite the same New York statutory source. This is not independent confirmation — it is parallel reliance on the same primary authority. Neither entry offers analytical elaboration; both treat this as a straightforward statutory classification requiring only the definitional boundary.
Bouvier adds three New York case citations (3 N.Y. 479; 48 Barb. 464; 6 Paige 497) that Black's omits, which is the more useful entry for a researcher needing to trace judicial interpretation of the term. These citations point to mid-nineteenth-century New York decisions construing the statutory category, and they represent the primary judicial gloss on the definition.
What both historical dictionaries miss: any sense of how the term functioned in practice across different states, how courts handled entities that straddled the boundary between moneyed and business corporations, or how the category evolved (and eventually dissolved) as corporate law modernized. A researcher relying solely on these definitions will have the statutory boundary but not the interpretive landscape.
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Jurisdictional Note
The term originates in New York statutory law and is most developed there. Other states used similar categorical distinctions in their nineteenth-century corporate statutes but did not always use this precise label. Researchers working with non-New York sources should verify whether a given jurisdiction employed the "moneyed corporation" classification or used different terminology for functionally equivalent regulatory categories.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Corporate Formation -- Corporate Types (Close, Professional, Benefit Corporations) — The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia (business_43)
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