I wonder if there were families or the equivalent of "companies" in the old Egyptian kingdom, which lasted for about 3000 years, longer than any modern-day civilization (although there may be some cultures that have existed for more than 3000 years)
I’m sure there are modern day rich people who can trace their way back to the Greek rulers of Egypt who intermarried with the Egyptians of antiquity.
You can trace power. Aristocracy used marriage as a political tool, but I doubt there are commercial entities that persisted - business was seen as dirty in those days in Western culture. Anywhere the Catholic Church was, lots of enterprises were laundered through them.
