In this paper, we focus on one channel through which state capacity explains differences in economic development: it s effect over firms. We rely on the literature of historical persistence to analyze the effect of historical legal capacity, a crucial dimension of state capacity, over the size and structure of firms through time. This relationship is studied for the Peruvian case. We use rich data from a historical census of the state administration carried in 1793 to analyze the persistent effect of legal capacity, and specifically from colonial courts, over historical and current firms development indicators. We show evidence of a persistent and significant positive effect of historical legal capacity over several dimensions of firms development (size and productivity) and structure (degree of market integration). Also, we collect information on race and literacy from a national population census held in 1876, and information on the initial distribution of firms from the registry of taxes in 1910s. Our evidence is robust to these important variables highlighted in the literature like human capital, initial distribution of firms, and racial heterogeneity. The presence of colonial courts appears to be the most important dimension of legal capacity. Third, we analyze the effect of colonial over the current presence of legal capacity as a potential channel of persistence. We observe that having legal capacity in the past affected the relative cost of subsequent investments in state capacity during the republic period. Finally, we have preliminary evidence on the different evolution of formal and informal norms. Municipalities with colonial legal capacity have loosened financial frictions and demand less informal credit. At the same time, there are no significant differences in the conditions to obtain a functioning license, a feature related to broad state capacity.