During America's Progressive Era, large monopolies controlled the industries in which they did business, increasing the economy and harming the people. Monopolies were a big thing during the progressive era. A monopoly is when one person or business owns a product that they can only sell and produce. For example, a big industry like oil used to be owned by the Rockefellers, and they were the only ones who could sell oil in America. According to the Newsela article "Entrepreneurs: John D. Rockefeller," "Standard Oil continued to spread."
Missouri Law and Monopolies America is a nation that is founded on the belief that personal freedoms are important. This notion certainly extends to the realm of business decisions as well--as such, early on in America’s history, there were not many regulations placed on businesses. However, over time, monopolies began to develop. These monopolies were considered to be bad for the market, because they discouraged competition, and as a result, led to over inflated prices on various goods and services.
In the mid to late 1800's, oil was used for lamps, but as the years evolved, a man by the name John D. Rockefeller, had saved his money long enough to start his own oil business. But as the company became popular, it also became a trust, where less competition couldn't bypass the prices or substitute the popular product of oil. A monopolistic market is a product company that has raised price levels high, and only comes from one business. Therefore the consumer is forced to only purchase the product from that business.
In fact, the
Another unpleasant side affect of the sudden industrial boom was the rise of trusts and monopolies. Both were severely detrimental to workers, as well as to consumers. For this reason, the government had a responsibility to break up prominent monopolies, such as the one held by Standard Oil. A trust forms when a company has control of several other companies in the same business. When that company controls all other companies in the same industry, the trust becomes
State of limited competition, in which a market is shared by a small number of producers or sellers. Meaning the market only has a handful of companies functioning in the same structure. The substitution of a product for another product or one vehicle for another it is completely possible in an Oligopoly market only from one of the few companies in the Oligopoly market structure. In the United States these companies would include Ford, GM, and Chrysler (Grunert n.d.). It is extremely difficult for any new Company wanting to enter into an Oligopoly market structure.
The freedoms that are hindered by these entities are the freedom to enter or not enter into a particular transaction by denying them any alternative and the freedom to not be affected by transactions in which you do not partake (Friedman, 1975). A monopoly deprives the consumer of the freedom of exchange; the consumer is forced to transact with a sole seller. Monopolies themselves come in different forms and deciding which monopoly will do less harm to the people, the monopolies need to be studied on a case-by-case basis. Most monopolies can be dealt with anti-trust laws to prevent them from coming to existence. Furthermore some monopolies need the government to stop supporting them in order to terminate its existence.
