:07:01
That was the dawn of
the industrial age.
:07:03
And then it became more
steel per man hour
:07:06
more textiles
per man hour
:07:08
more automobiles
per man hour
:07:10
and today it's more
chips per man hour
:07:12
more gizmos per man hour.
:07:14
The system is basically
the same system
:07:17
producing more
sophisticated products today.
:07:24
The dominant role of
corporations in our lives
:07:27
is essentially a product of
roughly the past century.
:07:31
Corporations were originally
associations of people
:07:35
who were chartered
by a state
:07:37
to perform some
particular function.
:07:39
Like a group of people
want to build abridge
:07:41
over the Charles River
or something like that.
:07:45
There were very few
chartered corporations
:07:48
in early United
States history.
:07:50
And the ones that existed
had clear stipulations
:07:54
in their state
issued charters
:07:56
how long they
could operate
:07:58
the amount of
capitalization
:08:00
what they made or did
or maintained
:08:03
a turnpike whatever was
in their charter
:08:05
and they didn't
do anything else.
:08:07
They didn't own or couldn't
own another corporation.
:08:11
Their shareholders
were liable.
:08:13
And so on.
:08:15
In both law and the culture
the corporation was considered
:08:18
a subordinate entity that was
a gift from the people
:08:22
in order to serve
the public good.
:08:28
So you have that history
:08:29
and we shouldn't
be misled by it
:08:31
it's not as if these
were the halcyon days
:08:34
when all corporations
served the public trust
:08:36
but there's a lot
to learn from that.
:08:41
The Civil War and the
Industrial Revolution
:08:45
created enormous growth
in corporations.
:08:48
And so there was an explosion
of railroads
:08:51
who got large federal
subsidies of land.
:08:54
Banking heavily
manufacturing
:08:58
And corporate lawyers
a century and a half ago