Big corporations were built by the state, not the free market

The state origins of big corporations: a liberal myth that does not hold up

Where did the big corporations that dominate today's market actually come from? The liberal narrative usually attributes their success to entrepreneurship and free competition, but a historical analysis reveals that many were born thanks to direct state investment, protectionism or, in some cases, colonial plunder. Those who defend the free market to the extreme ignore the fact that industrial and commercial conglomerates that are private today began as public enterprises or benefited from expansionary state policies.

The ideological blindness of textbook liberalism

The debate over the origins of large companies often runs into the ideological rigidity of those who see the free market as their salvation. They cling to mantras such as supply and demand while forgetting that prices and market structures have been shaped by political power and oligarchies. The supposed liberal pseudoscience collapses when confronted with the facts: from the East India companies to today's tech giants, the state has been the main architect.

From protectionism to piracy: the paths of capital

History shows that many business fortunes were built on state concessions, protective tariffs and, in countries with the strongest imperial tradition, through piracy and extortion backed by armies. Ignoring this past is not only intellectually dishonest, it also condemns us to repeat the same fallacies. The most dogmatic liberals, unable to break out of their script, keep repeating stock phrases while the real world proves them wrong.

Perhaps the greatest farce is not liberal pseudoscience itself, but the fact that they keep selling the tale of the self-sufficient private company while the state remains its main pillar.