What is a Corporation?

I understand that a corporation is not like a business which is run by a businessman, it is the collective stock of many people together called the shareholders. When the corporation profits it pays of its shareholders. However, what I want to understand is can a corporation exist in a free market? I ask this because it seems that corporations are protected by the state. And sometimes set up by the state. Can there be a free market corporation?

million threads on this already

read