What Are the Precursor Corporations?

In the 1300s and 1400s, Barcelona's naval arsenal looked a lot like a corporation. But when it turns out that Barcelona no longer needs such a large war fleet, well, it's a very expensive thing to maintain. The same with the Venetian arsenal that is driven by the necessities of military power but can't match Turkish or Spanish fleets. And yes, you have prefigures, nits of it in the railroad, right? A railroad needs to have a durable set of rails as well as of railroad cars and it needs to have telegraphs. Yet still you get railroads in lots of places and you only get industrial research labs and corporations coming out in Britain