Well, not similar to modern look of corporations but yes, they existed. The guilds and livery companies were sort of trade corporations with certain rules. The real corporations were based in Italian towns - merchant -banking and later two powerful German banking dynasties, usually owned by families. read more
Formal education has its roots very early in the Middle Ages, in the 800s under Charlemagne of France. Charlemagne was a shrewd leader, and understood that in order to maintain political and economic power in the ever-expanding world, he would need a resourceful and educated populace to continue to make technological and philosophical advances. read more
History of Medieval Education, Middle Ages European Learning . Below is a background review of the history of college education, medieval universities and higher learning education in the university and schools setting in europe, and origin and timeline information on the evolution of education in that system. read more