The legal framework used by the Mormon pioneers to establish corporations was imported into early Utah as were many other institutional ideas, social customs, and economic principles used in establishing their Zion. To understand in some completeness the effect of the corporate organization in Territorial Utah it is requisite that we first understand what constituted a corporation at that time and how this device was applied to the formation of business enterprises. What follows is a brief discussion of the development of the characteristics of the corporate organization from its origin to its implementation in early Utah.