The relevance of the study is caused by the development of the economic system of Russia and legal relations in the business area, as well as by the particular role of joint-stock companies as constituent entities. The retrospective analysis of Russian legislation is necessary to understand the cause-and-effect relations of legislative consolidation of legal norms, which govern the joint-stock companies' activity. The results of such an analysis can contribute to solving the problems of current lawmaking in this field. This paper presents the historical and administrative prerequisites for the establishment of joint-stock business entities in pre-revolutionary Russia. The paper considered the issue of the reception of a joint-stock form of entrepreneurship and analyzed principal legislative acts regulating the questions of defining a legal status and creating joint-stock companies. From the content of the Manifesto of January 1, 1807, the author identified the essential features of a joint-stock company, which, by their nature, correspond to those enshrined in current Russian legislation. The study considered the historical prerequisites of normative consolidation of the principle of limited liability of corporation participants. The author investigates the issues of joint-stock companies establishment and the structure of a Charter as a constituent document; focuses on the insufficient legal regulation of the joint-stock companies activity, which resulted in the increased regulatory role of Charters. The paper analyzes special aspects of normative regulation of joint-stock companies activity in the territory of the Russian Empire, for example, the established limitations. The author concludes on the absence of a clear split of various legal company types and identifies the collision in terms used in legislation to define joint-stock companies. Within the research, the author concludes the existence of continuity of current corporate legislation.