Average people view New York City as a dumpster fire with an oppressive government and rampant crime. They are spot on. Today’s version of the city is a mess because of tax-and-spend city (and state) governance that relies on large corporations to be a funding source for growing government intervention in private commerce.
Yet, the city is still considered a center of commerce in the United States and the world, thanks to long-standing relationships many corporations and wealthy individuals have with that historic city. As Dan Mitchell wrote on Feb. 18, 2025, at International Liberty, “NYC became rich because, for much of its history, capitalism flourished and government was constrained.” Mitchell argued that “the simple way to think of the city’s economic history is that the private sector was dominant for nearly 350 years. And that is the period when NYC became an economic Colossus.” He makes the case that despite corruption, including the infamous “Boss Tweed” era, the private sector was provided enough freedom to create wealth for investors, creators, and workers.
A great video description of the city’s early history, titled “New York’s 400 Year History: Built on Commerce. Destroyed by Politicians,” narrated by Barry Goldwater, Jr. and written by Andrew J. Cowin, explains why capitalism made New York the capital of the world. The video explains how finance formed the foundation of New York from an early history, starting in 1626 with the Dutch West India Company. That company expanded in what is now the New York metropolitan area for the purposes of discovering and cultivating commodities such as sugar, molasses and gold to ship from the New World to the Old World.
English traders and trappers were attracted to the area to create wealth. In 1674 the British took control of the area. Over the next 100 years, the port of New York expanded with the shipping trade. That 100 years expanded the economic infrastructure needed to support the trade between New York and Europe, with the support of bank loans and insurance from Europe.
Fast forward to the economic panic of 1792 that led to the establishment of the New York Stock Exchange pursuant to the Buttonwood Tree Agreement. This was an agreement by 24 traders who signed an agreement on how they would conduct business. That agreement established the New York Stock Exchange with rules and fixed commissions for each sale that solved the problems caused by speculators and shady trading that caused economic chaos. The establishment of a secure method for trading corporate stock in a way that the debt of corporations was known with confidence restored because there was confidence that stock traded had value behind it. For the following 200 years, the big, stable corporations were traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
The New York Stock Exchange’s stocks and bonds helped New York City grow and became the foundation for entrepreneurs to raise money to launch New York City as the capital of the world and America as the Shining City Upon A Hill. New York remains today a center of commerce in the United States despite the government of the city and state doing all they can to drive out commerce through oppressive regulation and high taxation. Capitalism remains the best way to organize commerce and is far superior to having government bureaucrats and elected officials meddling in the private transactions between consenting corporations and individuals.
ARE NEW YORK VOTERS EMBARRASSED BY THEIR LEADERS YET?
The young people of our nation need some examples of how free markets work because they have been brought up in a nation fixated on government acting as a nanny state with government officials second-guessing private entrepreneurs and spending taxed resources and borrowed cash from future generations that has resulted in over $30 trillion in national debt. Our nation’s youth need to spend more time studying the work of our tech giants and successful corporations that provide the essential services and products that people benefit from every day. More capitalism and less woke ideology are needed to right our nation.
The video is a testament to free market capitalism in the United States. The one downside of the video explainer is a glorification of the New York Yankees. As a Sox fan, I find that offensive. Nonetheless, the video is an amazing explainer of how capitalism built New York City and aided the growth of our great nation.
Brian Darling is former Counsel for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).