ABSTRACT
John R. Commons emphasized that contractor control of information is a crucial element of the sweating system. It is widely recognized that Commons believed regulation, that is, the establishment and enforcement of labor market standards, to be the appropriate remedy for destructive competition. This chapter describes some quite dissimilar contemporary cases in which the sweating system has been, or is being, implemented. It reviews Commons's conception of the sweating system, summarizes how he understood industrial development to bring about sweating, and calls attention to the close correspondence between the cases and Commons's characterization. Commons discerned that all transactions have conflicts of interest at their core. The fundamental conflict pertinent to all transactions is the consumer's interest in high quality and a low price versus the producer's interest in high wages and good working conditions. The chapter summarizes Adam Smith's conception of selfregulated transactional behavior. Fish processing may seem to have nothing to do with Nike sneaker production.
