ABSTRACT
His analysis of the problem, which partly derives from Smith,2 may now seem more than a little reactionary and far from forward-looking; but the important point to remember in this connection is that McCulloch was concerned with the aggravation by commercial vicissitudes of the socially unstable elements in the manufacturing sector, and it is probably this which, at least in part, explains his attitude to the problem. Prohibition of limited liability was not, he believed, an interference with the freedom of the individual; but even if it was, this did not matter because the good of society came first.3
