Limited liability and the wealth of 'uncivilised nations': Adam Smith and the limits to the European Enlightenment

Abstract

This paper questions the adequacy of the categories of analysis deployed by Adam Smith to serve as a basis for a progressive critique of corporate power at the ‘open economy’ level, arguing that if a critique of the principle of limited liability and other aspects of the undue influence of corporate power today is to acquire a truly global character, then it must avoid becoming confined within the intellectual horizons of the age of the European commercial and colonial empires, and should instead contribute towards constructive interaction between a diversity of intellectual, institutional and cultural traditions.