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The changing nature of the definition of the word, and how it empowers big government to get bigger
Monopolies then to thwart wage growth.
Monopolies then to thwart wage growth.
==History==
The word ''monopoly'' is one that has undergone a transformation over the years. During the American Revolution, monopolies were recognized not just to be a single entity with a unitary market position. Monopolies were, such as the [[East India Company]], coupled with the force of law preventing entrants from appearing. This ''legal advantage'' is what cemented their ''monopolist'' position. [[Edward Coke|Lord Coke]] described monopolies this way:
:An institution or allowance by the king, by his grant, commission, or otherwise, to any persons or corporations, of or for the sole buying, selling, making, working or using every thing, whereby any person or corporations are sought to be restrained of any freedom or liberty that they had before, or hindered in their lawful trade.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=BRBQAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA685 A Dictionary of Law: Consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases, and Maxims, and an Exposition of the Principles of Law]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ERgfAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA38 The Chicago Daily News Almanac and Year Book for 1912]</ref>
Hawkins, who worked with Coke, had a similar definition:
:A monopoly is an allowance by the king to a particular person or persons of the sole buying, selling, making, working, or using of any thing, whereby the subject in general is restrained from the freedom of manufacturing or trading which he had before.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=vZc0AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA624 A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown], William Hawkins, 1716</ref>
Under the original definition of a ''monopoly'', which involved a legally binding and enforceable grant of exclusivity, a company such as [[Microsoft]] or [[Standard Oil]] would not apply. It should be noted that the new definition of a monopoly is much more favorable to [[Big Government]] interests.
==See also==
==See also==
*[[Alcoa case]]
*[[Alcoa case]]