“No Body to be Kicked?” Monopoly, Financial Crisis, and Popular Revolt in 18th-Century Haiti and America
Contemporary law and legal theory are resigned to the view that the corporation is a mere nexus of contracts, a legal person lacking both body and soul. This essay explores that commitment to the immateriality of the corporation through a discussion of the 18th-century revolt against the Indies Comp...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Taylor & Francis
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107015 |
| _version_ | 1826206317584318464 |
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| author | Ghachem, Malick |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Humanities. History Section |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Humanities. History Section Ghachem, Malick |
| author_sort | Ghachem, Malick |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Contemporary law and legal theory are resigned to the view that the corporation is a mere nexus of contracts, a legal person lacking both body and soul. This essay explores that commitment to the immateriality of the corporation through a discussion of the 18th-century revolt against the Indies Company in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and British North America. Opponents of the joint-stock monopoly in these Atlantic settings believed, like critics of transnational corporate power today, that the company form represented a merger of wealth and power operating to subvert the liberties of disenfranchised outsiders. Financial crisis served to destabilize the fiscal and political environment that insulated the Indies Company from its critics, who took advantage of these openings by attacking the material embodiments of the corporation in the name of “free trade.” The 18th-century opposition to monopoly privilege suggests that corporate personality was neither dismissed as fiction nor accepted as reality, and that in some circumstances, at least, the corporate body could indeed be held to account for the sins of a person without conscience. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:27:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/107015 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:27:14Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1070152022-03-30T14:32:49Z “No Body to be Kicked?” Monopoly, Financial Crisis, and Popular Revolt in 18th-Century Haiti and America Ghachem, Malick Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Humanities. History Section Ghachem, Malick Ghachem, Malick Contemporary law and legal theory are resigned to the view that the corporation is a mere nexus of contracts, a legal person lacking both body and soul. This essay explores that commitment to the immateriality of the corporation through a discussion of the 18th-century revolt against the Indies Company in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and British North America. Opponents of the joint-stock monopoly in these Atlantic settings believed, like critics of transnational corporate power today, that the company form represented a merger of wealth and power operating to subvert the liberties of disenfranchised outsiders. Financial crisis served to destabilize the fiscal and political environment that insulated the Indies Company from its critics, who took advantage of these openings by attacking the material embodiments of the corporation in the name of “free trade.” The 18th-century opposition to monopoly privilege suggests that corporate personality was neither dismissed as fiction nor accepted as reality, and that in some circumstances, at least, the corporate body could indeed be held to account for the sins of a person without conscience. 2017-02-21T22:54:55Z 2016-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1535-685X 1541-2601 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107015 Ghachem, Malick W. “‘No Body to Be Kicked?’ Monopoly, Financial Crisis, and Popular Revolt in 18th-Century Haiti and America.” Law & Literature 28, no. 3 (September 2016): 403–431. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1535685X.2016.1232921 http://lawandrevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/authors-manuscript-for-website-posting.pdf Law & Literature Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Taylor & Francis Ghachem |
| spellingShingle | Ghachem, Malick “No Body to be Kicked?” Monopoly, Financial Crisis, and Popular Revolt in 18th-Century Haiti and America |
| title | “No Body to be Kicked?” Monopoly, Financial Crisis, and Popular Revolt in 18th-Century Haiti and America |
| title_full | “No Body to be Kicked?” Monopoly, Financial Crisis, and Popular Revolt in 18th-Century Haiti and America |
| title_fullStr | “No Body to be Kicked?” Monopoly, Financial Crisis, and Popular Revolt in 18th-Century Haiti and America |
| title_full_unstemmed | “No Body to be Kicked?” Monopoly, Financial Crisis, and Popular Revolt in 18th-Century Haiti and America |
| title_short | “No Body to be Kicked?” Monopoly, Financial Crisis, and Popular Revolt in 18th-Century Haiti and America |
| title_sort | no body to be kicked monopoly financial crisis and popular revolt in 18th century haiti and america |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107015 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ghachemmalick nobodytobekickedmonopolyfinancialcrisisandpopularrevoltin18thcenturyhaitiandamerica |