How the Romans set an example of good business practice

‘The purpose of corporations,’ writes William Magnuson, ‘is, and always has been, to promote the common good.’ That’s a very bold claim in an era when the left is convinced that shareholder-owned limited liability companies (which is what Magnuson means by corporations) largely exist to exploit the customer, the worker and the planet for the enrichment of owners and executives; while plenty of entrenched boardroom opinion believes with Milton Friedman that the sole social responsibility of business is ‘to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits, so long as it… engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud’.

The ‘common good’ may come into play in fashionable theories about the ‘social purpose’ of business ranking equal with, or ahead of, the profit motive – but that’s a development dating only from the middle of the past decade.