A colored copy of Dagsboro's business registration form
Archival Follies, Corporate Voters Project

Seeing Like a (Tiny) State

daelnorwood

Or, Dagsboro Considers the Legibility of Business

Corporate Voters Project – Research Note #5

On May 14, 1990, the Town Council of Dagsboro Delaware considered the topic of business licensure in a way James Scott would find familiar: 

“... The Council discussed the idea of making it necessary to get a license in order to operate a business in Dagsboro- - this will not necessarily be for a source of income but for an element of knowledge for the Council. This would take a well written ordinance.  The Council decided this was something that should be discussed with our attorney and it was agreed that we should have Attorney Steen attend our next meeting on June 11. The mayor asked the Council for their authority to present a trial balloon with the Chamber of Commerce in regards to a Business License. We need to know what's going and find what they would consider a reasonable charge. Authorization was granted to Mayor Jefferson.”

I am not how the conversation with the Chamber of Commerce went, with regard to this new effort to make business legible to the town government. I’m curious how Mayor Otis Jefferson pitched it to a group of businessmen generally unwilling to let the state in, even as they constantly sought to use the state for their own ends (including profit).

But something must have gone forward from 1990, because Dagsboro now not only allows businesses to vote – it requires them to be licensed.  

Source: “Minutes, May 14, 1990” in Minutes of the Dagsboro Town Council, 1941-1993, Delaware Public Archives, RG 7040-000-001, roll 2

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