Particularly was this true as laissez-faire capitalism became the dominant credo of Western society. To free the factors of production was a major objective of the rising bourgeoisie, and this objective required that governmental authority -- administrative officials and judges -- be limited as precisely and explicitly as possible; that old customs which inhibited trade be abrogated; that business be free from governmental supervision and notions of morality which might clog the automatic adjustments of the free market; that obligations of status that were inconsistent with the new politics and the new economics be done away with. Contract -- conceived as the free bargain of formal equals -- replaced the implied obligations of a more static and status conscious society. Indeed, contract was the dominant legal theme of the century, the touchstone of the free society. Government itself was based upon contract; business organization -- the corporation -- was analyzed in contractual terms; trade was based on freedom of contract, and money was lent and borrowed on contractual terms; even marriage and the family was seen as a contractual arrangement. It is not surprising that the international obligations of states were also viewed in terms of contract. In fact, some -- Anzilotti is the principle example -- went so far as to say that all international law could be traced to the single legal norm, Pacta sunt Servanda.