The Past Speaks

This is my favourite article in the EH Net online encyclopedia of economic history. It’s by Robert McGuire and its about the role of special interests in the drafting of the US constitution in the 1780s.

Here is the intro to the piece:

The adoption of the Constitution greatly strengthened the national government at the expense of the states. This article examines how our Founding Fathers designed the Constitution, examining findings on the political and economic factors behind the provisions included in the Constitution and its ratification. The article discusses the views of Charles Beard and his critics and focuses on recent quantitative findings that explain the making of the Constitution. These findings suggest that personal interests of the Founding Fathers, as well as constituents’ interests, played an important role in drafting the Constitution. They also suggest that economic and other interests played important roles at the ratifying conventions.

I like McGuire’s research on the economic origins of the US constitution for several reasons. First, his argument is informed by economic theory and is based on extensive archival research. Second, his research is on a genuinely important historical topic– the creation of what is now the most powerful organization in the world, the US government. Third, his research into the economic origins of the US constitution parallels my own research on the role of financial interests in Canadian Confederation.