Sklar, Martin J. 1988. The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism: 1890-1916 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). 49: In 1886, the U.S. Supreme Court, Santa Clara decision extended to corporations, at first to their stockholders as associated property holders and ultimately to the corporation itself, the legal status of a person within the meaning of the 14th and 15th Amendments. Judicial decisions endowed corporations with rights and privileges ascribed to the meaning of contractual liberty. The courts protected them against by deprivation by government of life, liberty, assets or earnings without due process of law. From the older meaning of property as ownership, disposal and exchange value of tangible things, the Court extended the exchange value dimension to protect intangible values (such as goodwill) or earning power. 50: "[T]he Court's redefinition of property solidified the legal ground for the liquidification of property, the transferability or negotiability of titles-to-ownership of property, and hence of titles to earnings or gains, though the conversion of capital from fixed tangibles into fluid intangibles. In short, it provided a secure legal environment for the capital market in industrials. It thereby combined the requirement of huge fixed investment, which imposed capital immobility upon the firm, with fluidity of ownership, which bestowed capital mobility upon the individual capitalist."
Uday Mohan wrote:
>
> Doug, a friend sent me the question below. Have you written about the
> issue? Any suggestions from you or others about sources? Thanks, Uday
>
> Does Doug Henwood have any opinion on the Supreme Court case entitled (I
> believe) Santa Clara county vs. Union Pacific Railroad? I think it's
> from around
> 1894 or so....it's the one where supposedly the court ruled that
> corporations
> had the same rights as persons before the law...
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Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu