Is the power that corporations have today to write laws in their favor due to a clerical error made in the 1800's?
In this paper, I will describe how the warnings given by Adam Smith about merchantilists in his book "The Wealth of Nations" apply to today's corporations. It is popular to cite Smith when discussing the power of the free market in a favorable light. In The Wealth Of Nations, Smith described what occurred when commercial interests - in his day, the merchantilists - and the government became too entwined in their actions and relationships. A clerical error committed in the 1800's by a Supreme Court clerk allows today's commercial interests and governments to be similarly entwined with a substantially larger effect.
While Smith is normally quoted when defending the actions of corporate culture, I surmise that Smith would actually give us the same warnings today about our corporations that he did the citizens of his day about merchantilists. This paper describes why.
Keywords: adam smith, constitution, corporatism, liberty, merchantilists, supreme court, the wealth of nations
