Contents -- Introduction -- I. The Emergence of an Instrumental Conception of Law -- II. The Transformation in the Conception of Property -- III. Subsidization of Economic Growth through the Legal System -- IV. Competition and Economic Development -- V. The Relation between the Bar and Commercial Interests -- VI. The Triumph of Contract -- The Equitable Conception of Contract in the Eighteenth Century -- The Rise of a Market Economy and the Development of the Will Theory of Contract -- Custom and Contract -- Tort and Contract -- VII. The Development of Commercial Law -- The Rise of Negotiability -- The Law of Insurance: The Development of Actuarial Conceptions of Risk -- Usury -- Swift v. Tyson: The Rise of a General Commercial Law -- VIII. The Rise of Legal Formalism -- Notes -- Index.