Government Regulation Of Monopolies In The 1800's

The rise of the railroad industry in the mid 1800’s made for the grounds of a monopoly taking place. This fear of a railroad monopoly caused the first antitrust policy in 1890 to be enacted (“Government Regulation of Monopolies”). Putting in place this antitrust policy set off generations of debate about the government’s role with monopolies. Governments currently regulate and prevent monopolies and rightfully so but there is still an opposition to government intervention even in monopolies. In a free market society, which needs to be further defined, valid points are made on both sides of whether or not government should regulate monopolies. However, a stronger case is made to supporting the side of government regulation of monopolies in

For example, supermarkets may use their dominant market position to squeeze profit margins of farmers,” (Pettinger, n.d.). In this example, farmers have nowhere else to go and sell their product but to the monopoly. Therefore, the monopoly knowing this, can refuse to buy the product of the farmer unless it is at an extremely low and unreasonable price. The farmer will then be put in financial turmoil because of the corruptive behavior that monopoly is exerting. When this abusive behavior is observed by monopolistic companies it should be the job of the government to protect the suppliers from this. Consumers are clearly not the only ones that can be negatively impacted by the abusive power of monopolies but suppliers as well. These suppliers cannot sit around, fingers crossed that the market will fix itself by someone jumping in and being a competitor to this industry as them and their families go more into debt and turmoil. That is the reason why the government should fulfill its task of being for the people and protecting these suppliers from the monopoly

In some industries, it is possible to encourage competition, and therefore there will be less need for government regulation.” When competition is endorsed and encouraged there becomes less need for regulation because then the market does hold other industries accountable and prices are kept low, quality is high and both are fair. This is the whole concept of a free market and should be one of the biggest purposes of the government’s economic agenda. Promoting a free market however can include breaking up monopolies or regulating monopolies. Ultimately, the government should stay out of the workings of the free market as the definition says, “without government regulation or fear of monopolies,” (Free Market). The government should not intervene with the free market but simply promote the idea and encourage the process so that way the market can be completely free and most efficient. However, the free market is also a place that is to be without fear of monopolies. This means monopolies should either not exist or not be a threat and either way that requires government authority to regulate the potentially dangerous monopolies. If no monopolies exist or persist then the government should sit back and only promote competition as its economic