The rich knew about corporations, which became popular in the days of sailing ships. The rich created the corporation as a vehicle to limit their risk to the assets of each voyage. The rich put their money into a corporation to finance the voyage. The corporation would then hire a crew to sail to the New World to look for treasure. If the ship was lost, the crew lost their lives, but the loss to the rich would be limited only to the money they invested for
that particular voyage.