No Hons, I'm not talking about the current state of our society or the current political situation in the States. Lol. There are simply not enough lifetimes to get to the root of those problems.

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I'm talking about the roots of our problems. By "our" I mean us business owners who are out here trying to figure out what it takes to make enough money in our businesses to be financially stable and comfortable.

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If you don't know this about me, then let me share: I love history. Like really love it. And last year, I expanded my historical studies to include the history of law. I know everyone loves to talk about capitalism (and I do too inside of the context of imperialism) and the structures of oppression that it creates, but we never really discuss those structures.

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Like what they are and how they operate.

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And we especially rarely talk about the law being one of those structures, which means we also don't talk about how laws came to be, how they're written and why, and how they were designed to benefit a nascent merchant class (who we now know as the capitalist class).

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We never talk about how that initial legal structure for the merchant class has been tweaked and redesigned throughout history to make it easier for that class of people to hoard wealth similar to the noble class who used to look down on them.

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And that really bothers me.

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Because if we're not clear about why the laws are the way they are, who the laws are designed to protect, how the laws protect them, and why they need that protection, then the law will continue to be an unworkable system for the rest of us.

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To be fair, we have a lot less to lose than those fancy capitalist class people, but we still want and deserve the support and the protection of the law in our businesses.

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So without getting completely lost in the history of the law, I think I'll just share this one fundamental tidbit:

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Today's system of business law is rooted in laws created during the Roman Empire, but the foundation of the system was built during what our high school teachers called the European Age of Discovery.

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If you're where I am in my unlearning history journey, then it's commonly known that the Age of Discovery was more like the "Age of Relentless Violence and Theft by mostly European Nations." And that reframe is actually important for today's lesson about the law.

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Because the system of business law we're currently working with was created to legalize (or justify) the theft of resources from other lands.

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Isn't that just like, so cute?

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I wish I was making this up, but that's pretty much it.

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Now I'm going to spend the rest of this email explaining why this information is relevant to you.

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One. Early merchants were really good at taking stolen resources from other lands and using them to produce new things. Some merchants specialized in collecting raw materials (stolen resources). Others specialized in transporting them. And others specialized in using the raw materials to make new things.

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All of them made a lot of money and they often loaned that money to the government and paid taxes on that money to the government.

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Do you know what that means? The government (at that time all monarchs) became keenly interested in the merchant class because the merchant class made them lots of money. That meant it was in the government's interest to make laws that protected the merchant class and their wealth because that wealth also fed the government.

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This is the root of the alliance between government and big business today.

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Two. As a result, things that mattered to merchants started to become law. Things like property laws that said who owned what became extremely important to merchants. After all, they were stealing from "savage" lands so it was important to have laws in their own countries that essentially said "finders keepers."

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This my friends is the root of our very robust property laws (physical and intellectual). It's also why we are obsessed with protecting what's ours because the idea of claiming property in the current system of business law is rooted in claiming title to stolen property.

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It was really important for merchants back in the day to establish "legal" title to property before someone else did. Because of that, it became a business "best practice" to establish one's property rights (physical and intellectual).

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Three. Contract law took off. Contracts were how the merchant who collected the raw materials worked with the merchant who transported the raw materials worked with the merchant who converted the raw materials into products.

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Contracts were how merchants legally used stolen property for commercial benefits. And because of that, they needed to have clear delineations about who owned what, who was paying what, and who was providing what and how much.

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They also needed to plan for contingencies, like what happened if all the materials are lost in a storm at sea? Or a merchant simply changed their mind? Laws and customs were created to govern the different situations that arose. So more courts had to be created and laws about which courts could hear which cases arose (this is called venue and jurisdiction).

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And before we knew it, there was this robust system of property law, contract law, and really complicated procedural law for navigating litigation and other processes thanks to those merchants and the governments who supported them.

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So where we find ourselves now is in the middle of a legal system that has its roots in theft, that still has very practical laws that support building a business, and that can be extremely difficult to navigate thanks to the invention of all those procedural rules.

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Here is what I think that means in practice for you:

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ONE: Because big business has roots in literal theft, we're often tempted to think that there's a "get rich quick" formula waiting for us behind the right door. But the truth is that we don't really have the same opportunities to steal that merchants had back in the day and that big businesses do now. The way forward for most of us is more of the slow-and-steady variety. The kind where we do some trial and error, find what fits, repeat what works, and create systems for what works so we can grow and scale.

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Practically, that means that the $6,000 "Make 6 figures in 30 days" program probably isn't legit. It's probably some form of theft, namely the program instructor stealing $6,000 from you and moving on with your life.

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While business ownership is not a race, slow and steady is always going to win the day for those of us who aren't interested in stealing.

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TWO: Remember that who you are doing business with matters. Big businesses have a lot to lose because they have a lot of property and assets. The more someone has to lose, the more oppressive their contracting practices will be.

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In these situations, it will be tempting to think of your buyer or point person as the business, but please remember that they are just a person; the business they represent is not. They might be nice and so it might feel awkward to push back on oppressive contract terms and be firm in stating your case. But ultimately you are negotiating with a giant corporation that is deeply interested in exploiting resources, including you.

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So raise your prices and push back on those contract terms, friend.

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THREE: Don't miss out on opportunities to engage in friendly and fair contracting with the right people. This usually happens when you are collaborating with another regular degular business owner. Whether you're co-creating an offer with them or inviting them into a program of yours, do us all a favor and offer them a contract with fair terms written in plain language.

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We ought to take opportunities to be good to each other where we can instead of reinforcing problematic business practices. Regular degular business owners who aren't open to this kind of relating are a red flag to me.

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FOUR: The last frontier of resource hoarding for us regular degulars is information. Some people say we're living in the Economy of Attention. If so, that marketplace is flooded with information.

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But here's the thing: other people will have the same ideas as you, but they will never be able to deliver those ideas the way you do. So for your business and legal strategy, I tend to suggest figuring out how to deliver your information successfully (aka a way that makes money) before worrying about how to protect it because it might take a few iterations and there's no need to spend that money multiple times.

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FIVE: You need to know when you're dealing with a resource hoarder (thief) and when you're dealing with a regular business. A resource hoarder will bait you into engaging with them and make you feel like you don't have a choice when it comes to working with them.

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WARNING: Their actions are not always overtly oppressive.

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Please remember that there is such a thing as something being so sweet it hurts your teeth. In these situations, don't depend on a contract to protect you; depend on your gut (instincts) and listen when it tells you that something's not right.

Please note that #5 also applies to lawyers you are considering hiring. A good lawyer always provides options.

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If you like this email, you'll probably also like my free workshop "What No One Tells You About Contracts," which will be offered live on Wednesday, August 7th at 3pm EST.

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To register, click the link below. It will take you to a short customer research survey (5 min.) and then you'll be prompted to register for the workshop.

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I can't wait to see you there!

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See you next time on these legalese streets,

Brionna

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p.s. If you want to support my creation of more free legal resources for people who work, then I invite you to donate to The Everyday Lawyer Solidarity Fund. It's just over 60% funded and you can make a one-time or recurring donation to support the cause!