The relationship between the American regulatory state and the business enterprise is strikingly distinctive, viewed comparatively. The simplest, but perhaps the most important, indicator of distinction is that this is a relationship with deep historical roots. The pre-industrial American economy was one where the state was closely involved directly in the conduct of economic life, for instance in the chartering of corporations. But the relationship with business took a special turn in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. That special turn was a reaction to a great economic revolution which spanned the generation following the end of the Civil War.