nes like that of Jacques Coeur in France, an early prototype of
Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, or even vast hereditary fortunes kept in
one family, like the Fuggers of Augsburg, and based on a natural
monopoly--mineral salt--as is Mr. Rockefeller's upon mineral oil. Yet
as lives are short and abilities not usually hereditary, the great
corporation question of to-day would hardly have arisen. Nevertheless,
it is presumed that no one, not even the greatest radical, would now
propose to dispense with the invention of the business corporation
with limited liability.

A careful discussion of the two theories above referred to will be
found in pages 1 to 28 of the report of the Committee on Corporation
Laws to the legislature of Massachusetts, of January, 1903. The bill
for a business corporation law recommended by this committee was
enacted into law without substantial change, and has apparently been
satisfactory in the six years it has been in force, as the amendments
to it, except only as to the system of taxation of corporations, have
been few and trifling. I venture to quote from the report referred to
a few of the remarks of the commissioners upon the general question,
as it is now out of print:

The investigations of the committee, the results of which have
been briefly summarized, have led to the following conclusions:

_First_.--That the more important provisions of the present law
regulating the organization and conduct of business corporations
and the liability of its stockholders and officers are unsuited to
modern business conditions.

_Second_.--That the restrictions governing capitalization and the
payment of stock as shown in the piecemeal legislation enlarging
the classes of corporations which may organize under general laws
are arbitrary or impossible of execution.

_Third_.--That it is a general practice to organize under the laws
of other States corporations to carry on enterprises which are
owned and managed by citizens of Massachusetts, particularly where
a part or all the property is situated outside the State.

THEORY OF LEGISLATION RECOMMENDED

The history of corporations, as well as the logic of the case, shows
that there are possible two general theories as to the State's duty in
creating corporations: first, the old theory that, being creatures
of the State, they should be guaranteed by it to the public in all
particulars of responsibility an