The power to contract is sometimes expressly granted to a corporation by its charter. Generally, however, this is not done, and the power to contract comes to a corporation as an implied power, in which cases this power of contracting is limited to contracts which may be necessary or usual in the course of the business for which it was created, or reasonably incident thereto. The power of contracting is always implied, under these limitations, in the absence of a positive restriction in the charter of the corporation.8

6 People, Ex rel., Peabody vs. Chicago Gas Trust Co., 130

III., 268; 22 N. E., 798, 799. 7 Ward vs. Johnson, 95 III., 215.

"A corporation and an individual do not stand upon the same footing in regard to the right of contracting. The latter may make all contracts which in the eye of the law are not inconsistent with the interests of society; whereas the former, being created for a specific purpose, must look to its charter, which is, as it were, the law of its nature, to ascertain the extent of its capacity. It can not only make no contracts forbidden by its charter, but it can only make those which are necessary to effectuate the purposes of its creation." 9

Express limitations upon the power of contracting of corporations are sometimes contained in statute or charters. For example, a limit is sometimes placed upon the amount of indebtedness which may be contracted by a corporation.