17 - America:

Summary

The history of corporations in America begins with the history of permanent English settlement in North America. The corporation in America only began to gain traction after the revolution and it would not become dominant until the late nineteenth century. Capitalism, though, was ever present in America from the establishment of colonies onward, as evidenced by reliance upon markets for personal, private gain. The growing importance of Chicago and the CBoT as a trade center was also evidenced by the posting of market reports from Oswego, Buffalo, Montreal, and New York on the bulletin board by noon each day beginning in 1858. As a land of European settlement, America has always been a land of immigrants. As the American population pushed westwards to take up new land, there was an increasing mismatch between the locus of production and places of consumption. The federal government was deeply involved in internal improvements than state governments.