The Commercial Power of Municipalities

The term 'commercial power' as used in denoting a certain power which, according to circumstances, may or may not be exercised by a municipal corporation, is intended to relate to both the field of municipal ownership and operation of recognized public utilities and the field of enterprises which has more commonly been described as municipal trading. The term is used in a relative sense as signifying that commercial element which in either of those two fields represents an aspect of municipal activity clearly distinguishable from its purely governmental powers and functions. Of the two recognized capacities of a municipal corporation, this treatise is concerned only with the municipal corporation acting in the capacity of a property holder or a business proprietor conducting enterprises for the private advantage of itself and its Inhabitants.