The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, 1890-1916: The Market, the Law, and PoliticsAt the turn of the twentieth century American politics underwent a profound change, as both regulatory minimalism and statist command were rejected in favor of positive government engaged in both regulatory and distributive roles. Through a fresh examination of the judicial, legislative, and political aspects of the antitrust debates in the years from 1890-1916, Martin Sklar shows that the arguments did not arise simply because of competition versus combination, but because of the larger question of the proper relations between government and the market and between state and society. |
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after all records in The Hansard on Tocqueville's reception in British parliament ever since his democratic and/or American best seller (1840) - the question remains largely open if only because so many have rallied to this sociological legerdemain (...) when international relations would be a thing of the past.
We all can witness where such a course is taking us: right back to The Hansard and British MP's warning about such issues as The Iron and Steel Bill" - their fright - at least the Conservatives among them - of nationalizations and public service in general.
Clarity of expression for what would sound hackneyed reiterates a debate which academics in general have abdicated as their fuzzy mandate etc.
from Winnipeg, Canada
Charles-Emmanuel Reesink
Contents
| 1 | |
| 4 | |
| 14 | |
| 20 | |
| 33 | |
| 43 | |
| 47 | |
| 53 | |
Conclusion | 173 |
The politics of antitrust | 179 |
Bureau of Corporations v US Supreme Court | 184 |
The movement for Sherman Act revision | 203 |
The Hepburn bill | 228 |
The defeat of the Hepburn bill | 253 |
Between Roosevelt and Wilson | 285 |
Toward a trade commission | 309 |
| 57 | |
| 62 | |
| 68 | |
| 72 | |
| 78 | |
| 85 | |
| 86 | |
Before the Sherman Act | 93 |
The Sherman Act | 105 |
Judicial construction 18901897 | 117 |
Coup de jure | 127 |
Restoration | 146 |
American corporations European cartels | 154 |
The corporateliberal alternative | 166 |
The corporateliberal solution | 324 |
Two progressive presidents | 333 |
Roosevelt | 334 |
Taft | 364 |
Woodrow Wilson and the corporateliberal ascendancy | 383 |
A history of developments | 384 |
A modus vivendi in America for happiness | 392 |
A middle ground between socialism and capitalism | 401 |
A worldwide economic tendency | 412 |
The modern idea | 419 |
Conclusion Fathers and prophets | 431 |
Bibliography | 442 |
Index | 461 |
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The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, 1890-1916: The Market ... Martin J. Sklar No preview available - 1988 |
Common terms and phrases
administration agreements amendment American antitrust Association authority banking bill Bureau capitalism capitalist Civic combination commission committee common law Company competition Conant conference Congress constitutional construction contract corporate decision direct draft Easley economic effect enforcement enterprise established executive favor federal foreign Hearings held hence House individual industrial interstate Interstate Commerce investment issue judicial Justice labor large corporations leaders legislation license major manufacturers matter means ment monopoly movement natural noted opinion organization party persons political position practices present president Press principle production progressive proposed question reasonable reform regulation regulatory relations represented respect restraints of trade result role Roosevelt Rule Senate Sherman Act Smith social society Supreme Court Taft theory thought tion trust unions United University unreasonable Wilson York
Popular passages
Page 148 - restraint of trade " at common law and in the law of this country at the time of the adoption of the Anti-trust Act only embraced acts or contracts or agreements or combinations which operated to the prejudice of the public interests by unduly restricting competition or unduly obstructing the due course of trade or which, either because of their inherent nature or effect or because of the evident purpose of the acts, etc., injuriously restrained trade, that the words as used in the statute were...
Page 125 - Congress did not attempt thereby to assert the power to deal with monopoly directly as such, or to limit and restrict the rights of corporations created by the states or the citizens of the states in the acquisition, control or disposition of property ; or to regulate or prescribe the price or prices at which such property or the products thereof should be sold ; or to make criminal the acts of persons in the acquisition and control of property which the states of their residence or creation sanctioned...
Page 125 - Contracts, combinations, or conspiracies to control domestic enterprise in manufacture, agriculture, mining production in all its forms, or to raise or lower prices or wages, might unquestionably tend to restrain external as well as domestic trade, but the restraint would be an indirect result, however inevitable and whatever its extent, and such result would not necessarily determine the object of the contract, combination, or conspiracy.
Page 148 - ... should be given a meaning which would not destroy the individual right to contract and render difficult if not impossible any movement of trade in the channels of interstate commerce — the free movement of which it was the purpose of the statute to protect.
Page 148 - Applying the rule of reason to the construction of the statute, it was held in the Standard Oil Case that as the words "restraint of trade" at common law and in the law of this country at the time of the adoption of the Anti-trust Act only embraced acts or contracts or agreements or combinations which operated to the prejudice of the public interests by unduly restricting competition or unduly obstructing the due course of trade or which, either because of their inherent nature or effect or because...
Page 132 - ... the power of congress to regulate interstate commerce comprises the right to enact a law prohibiting the citizen from entering into those private contracts which directly and substantially, and not merely indirectly, remotely, incidentally and collaterally, regulate to a greater or less degree commerce among the states.
Page 133 - What sound reason," said the Court, "can be given why Congress should have the power to interfere in the case of the State, and yet have none in the case of the individual? Commerce is the important subject of consideration, and anything which directly obstructs and thus regulates that commerce which is carried on among the States, whether it is state legislation or private contracts between individuals or corporations, should be subject to the power of Congress in the regulation of that commerce.
Page 112 - I admit that it is difficult to define in legal language the precise line between lawful and unlawful combinations. This must be left for the courts to determine in each particular case. All that we, as lawmakers, can do is to declare general principles, and we can be assured that the courts will apply them so as to carry out the meaning of the law, as the courts of England and the United States have done for centuries.
Page 102 - Liberty, in its broad sense, as understood in this country, means the right, not only of freedom from actual servitude, imprisonment, or restraint, but the right of one to use his faculties in all lawful ways, to live and work where he will, to earn his livelihood in any lawful calling, and to pursue any lawful trade or avocation.
Page 137 - We also repeat what is said in the case above cited, that " the act of Congress must have a reasonable construction, or else there would scarcely be an agreement or contract among business men that could not be said to have, indirectly or remotely, some bearing upon interstate commerce, and possibly to restrain it.
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, 1890-1916: The Market, the Law, and Politics |
| Author | Martin J. Sklar |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 1988 |
| ISBN | 0521313821, 9780521313827 |
| Length | 484 pages |
| Subjects | › › Business & Economics / Economic History Business & Economics / Industries / General History / United States / General Law / General Political Science / Public Policy / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |