The Routledge Research Companion to Law and Humanities in Nineteenth-Century America (original) (raw)
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The Corporation and the Transformation of American Culture
In the second half of the nineteenth century, as the corporation was becoming a dominant force in American life, American writers responded to its torrid growth with praise and trepidation. One of the most pervasive manifestations of the corporation -the railroad -was both celebrated and feared. t In 1868, Walt Whitman sang of the "mighty railroad" as one of «the great achievements of the present;' a wonder that "spann'd" the New World. 2 But in his 1901 novel, The Octopus, Frank Norris described the corporate railroad as "the soulless force, the iron-hearted power" -an unrelenting monster that ravaged and consumed the landscape "from horizon to horizon:'3 Whitman's railroad symbolizes not only industry but "modern" expansiveness. For Norris, the railroad stands as the "symbol of a vast power" that has no soul and an unfeeling heart. Both writers suggest that the railroad's significance resides in its capacity as an organized structure that offers unprecedented reach and unrelenting growth. Put another way, the railroad is the corporation made visible, a creation symbolizing the energy and power of a new age, yet also looming with the presence of an impersonal, menacing giant. Chroniclers of the nineteenth century like Whitman and Norris tempt us to examine the corporation by studying its most spectacular examples -like the railroadas organizations to be revered or condemned. But the story of the corporation requires a far more complex accounting than what is revealed by such apparently polarized responses.
This paper argues that the corporation is the central institution of the modern world, re-making society in its own image. The paper argues that the corporation is much more than an economic organization but represents the emergence of a new class structure of production. The corporation is based upon a set of relationships which determines what is produced and exchanged, how and by whom, even the kind of people and society that consumes them. As a class structure of production, the corporation expresses new social relations determining the production, appropriation and distribution of the social surplus.
THE CORPORATION AS A BODY POLITIC
Telos 57, 1983
This article contests the conventional wisdom that the private business corporation has always been an essentially economic undertaking. The legal history of the corporation in the early American republic provides clear evidence that the traditional logic of property expressed something other than the stern and single-minded logic of profit maximization. In post-revolutionary New England, in particular, the fusion of ownership and control actually endowed the traditional logic of property with a decidedly political significance. The common law doctrines governing the corporation assumed that even the private business corporation should be treated as a civil body politic. In other words, corporations were seen as associations of persons imbued with the civic ethos appropriate to a genuine republican community. Contrary to the received understanding, therefore, the emergence of the business corporation as a private, economic engine of capital accumulation was contingent upon the very separation of ownership and control that Berle and Means, Galbraith and others cite as evidence of the post-capitalist nature of the modern corporate system.
Introduction: Why the Corporation?
The Corporation: A Critical, Multi-Disciplinary Handbook
The corporation has become a dominant form of economic life. While corporations have been with us since the early modern era, their influence and importance have grown exponentially. Today, corporations are among the largest economic entities in the world. Their annual turnover is greater than the gross domestic product of all but the largest nation-states. A handful of large corporations dominate most key global markets. Corporations – and their extended value chains – are an important source of employment. Governments rely on corporations – directly or indirectly – for tax revenues, expertise, and economic development. Citizens rely on corporations for everyday needs such as transport, healthcare, food, and utilities such as power and electricity. If we really want to understand the contemporary economy, a good place to start is the corporation.
Conceptualizing the Business Corporation: Insights from History
Journal of Institutional Economics, 2020
The purpose of this symposium is to shed light on the genealogy of the idea of a business corporation, an economic institution which has long been regarded with a mixture of awe and apprehension. Each of the four original contributions addresses the history of some of its key features. In the process, each contributor reveals some of the insights that history has to teach us regarding the central concepts that inform contemporary debates about the nature of the corporation, the contours of the corporation's purpose, the sources of corporate power, the functions of corporate law, the duties of directors, the status of shareholders, and the legitimacy of corporate rights.
The Social and Political Origins of the American Business Corporation, 1787-1861
2018
Why did the business corporation become so common in 19 century America? I argue against prevailing explanations for corporate proliferation that point primarily to the power of capitalist elites or to selection by market forces. Instead, I explain corporate development by demonstrating the importance of democratization to institutional change. Using a combination of historiographical and quantitative methods, I argue that the American business corporation was “democratized” through increasing popular participation in politics. Furthermore, I argue that this popular engagement in corporate law was not narrowly “economic” in nature, but was undertaken in an effort to create a more egalitarian and republican society. I pay special attention to how ideas about republican society and democratic governance interacted with the American party system to reshape corporate development. In particular, I argue that the Jacksonian Democrats played an integral role in corporate development becaus...