SPECIAL THANKS

This book would not have been possible

without the generous help of the following supporters:

Benefactors

Hunter Lewis and Elizabeth Sidamon-Eristoff

Mr. and Mrs. J. Ryan Alford

Juliana and Hunter Hastings

James Nardulli

Patrons

Steven R. Berger

Mr. and Mrs. Roger H. Box

Remy Demarest

Mr. and Mrs. Jule R. Herbert, Jr.

R. Anderson Hord III

James E. Kluttz

Russell C. Lemley

Cover design by Dani Wallace.

Published 2021 by the Mises Institute. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). commons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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To

Murray N. Rothbard

I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. . . . Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

LORD ACTON, 1887

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Hunter Lewis of Axios Press inspired me to write Cronyism. In the spring of 2019 he generously provided a research grant to write the history of crony capitalism in America. As I started working, I realized that to accurately describe the history of cronyism I needed to spend a significant amount of time on early United States history, when reformers made the greatest strides toward nipping special privileges in the bud. I hope this work is up to his standards.

INTRODUCTION