fulfilled certain statutory conditions, which are briefly these:--
(a) The company must have allotted shares to the amount of not less
than the "minimum subscription."
(b) Every director must have paid up his shares in the same proportion
as the other members of the company.
(c) A statutory declaration, made by the secretary of the company or
one of the directors, must have been filed with the registrar of joint
stock companies, that these conditions have been complied with.
These conditions fulfilled, the company gets its certificate and starts
on its business career, carrying on its business through the agency of
directors, as to whose powers and duties see DIRECTORS.
Meetings.
The Companies Act as consolidated in the act of 1908, and the
regulations under them, treat the directors of a company as the persons
in whom the management of the company's affairs is vested. But they also
contemplate the ultimate controlling power as residing in the
shareholders. A controlling power of this kind can only assert itself
through general meetings; and that it may have proper opportunities of
doing so, every company is required to hold a general meeting, commonly
called the statutory meeting, within--as fixed by the Companies Act
1900--three months from the date at which it is entitled to commence
business. This first statutory meeting acquired new significance under
the Companies Act of 1900 and marks an important stage in the early
history of a company. Seven days before it takes place the directors are
required to send round to the members a certified report informing them
of the general state of the company's affairs--the number of shares
allotted, cash received for them, and names and addresses of the
members, the amount of preliminary expenses, the particulars of any
contract to be submitted to the meeting, &c. Furnished with this report
the members come to the meeting in a position to discuss and exercise an
intelligent judgment upon the state and prospects of the company.
Besides the statutory meeting a company must hold one general meeting at
least in every calendar year, and not more than fifteen months after the
holding of the last preceding general meeting (Companies (Consolidation)