Posted at Hartmann Report on Nov. 5, 2023
The Monopolists Rise Up: The Hidden History of Monopolies
When, in the 1880s, the state of Ohio began threatening Standard Oil Trust of Ohio with the corporate death penalty, breaking up and dissolving the corporation and selling off its assets, John D. Rockefeller and his monopolist buddies publicly called for states to change their corporate governance laws to get around all of the restrictions that Ohio and most other states had placed on them.
New Jersey heard the call and thus became the first state to engage in what was then called “charter-mongering” — changing its corporate charter rules to satisfy the desires of the nation’s largest businesses. In 1875, its legislature abolished maximum capitalization (size) limits.