Quote Originally Posted by Poor Bloody Infantry
I'm not sure I like the idea of having a company do all the conquering and management for me, seems to me that wouldn't leave an awful lot for me to do. Besides, I'm not sure I'd trust an AI faction to mount an effective campaign of conquest on my behalf, I suspect it wouldn't do as good a job as I could myself.

But I think chartered corporations could be implemented in a more limited way, perhaps like the guilds in M2TW, i.e. the company would ask for a charter to set up an office in your newly conquered territories, which would increase trade.
There will still be wars on mainland Europe, settling more colonies, etc. You'd probably have the choice to whether or not you want to establish the corporations. You could probably control what the corporations do as well(management, conquests, etc.).