In the 1890s, thousands of New York companies threatened to move across the Hudson River to New Jersey, a neighbour who offered not only lower taxes but far less restrictive corporate charters.

In 1896, New Jersey created a revolutionary new chapter, which permitted unlimited corporate size and market share, removed all time limits on the corporate charter and legalised new mergers and acquisitions for Standard Oil and other companies already as big as an octopus.

Corporations were so pleased that by 1900, a total of 95% of big US companies decided to become New Jerseyites.

This triggered a furious bidding war among the States. The eventual winner was Delaware, and slowly all big corporations began slowly migrating to this tiny state in the 20th century

Ralph Nader et al “Training the Corporation”