Monopoly
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Monopoly. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the exclusive right to sell or manufacture a certain article or class of goods. The undisputed right to buy and sell in an open market has not been granted universally. The authority to grant a favorite or a useful servant a monopoly has been a cherished privilege of monarchs and governments. In the days of "Good Queen Bess" the people groaned beneath the exactions of a horde of monopolists who had gained the ear of the sovereign and secured the exclusive sale of various necessities and luxuries. Honest tradesmen were driven from business. The people paid extortionate prices. Of course there was always some good reason to allege for granting an exclusive privilege. Inasmuch as "divers subjects of able bodies, which might go to plough, did employ themselves in the art of making cards," a monopoly to sell playing cards was granted. The exclusive privilege of selling starch was given on the score of preventing a waste of wheat--so on to the end of the list. Finally the abuse of monopolies became so great that Parliament took up the matter. Elizabeth's ministers defended the custom, but after acrimonious debate had run for four days, the queen, seeing that the issue was going against her, thanked Parliament for calling attention to grievous burdens of which she had been unaware. She made a clean sweep, abolishing all monopolies at a single blow. Yet under Charles I, so seductive is the principle of monopoly, and so capable is it of bringing corrupt influence to play, that soap, salt, and many other articles of prime necessity were again controlled by monopolies that undertook to pay sums into the public treasury for the privilege. Speaking of the holders of these monopolies, the historian Green quotes a member of Parliament: "They sup in our cup, they dip in our dish, they sit by our fire; we find them in the dye-vat, the wash-bowl, and the powdering tub. They share with the cutler in his box. They have marked and sealed us from head to foot." Patents and copyrights are modern forms of monopoly. The granting of exclusive franchises to gas and electric light companies, street railway companies, and water companies is a prolongation of the monopoly system. The granting of licenses to sell liquor, especially in case but one saloon is licensed in a community, is the granting of monopoly on the old plea of "for the public good." In many countries there are government monopolies. In France and other nations, the government monopolizes the sale of tobacco. The Japanese government monopolizes the sale of camphor. Salt is not infrequently made a government monopoly. See Trusts
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an exclusive trading right over; the exclusive right or privilege of production, sale, or purchase of any commodity; the sole right or power of selling any commodity; the exclusive right or privilege of trading in any community, or with any country; license from the proper authority to any person or company to make, sell, export, import, buy, or otherwise deal in any commodity or number of commodities. Thus, a patent for an invention gives the patentee the exclusive right of making or dealing in the article patented. Also the assuming or claiming right to or possession of anything to the exclusion of others; as, He claims a monopoly of the conversation. In law, the only monopolies that the laws of the United States and the individual States look on with favor consist of the Postoffice, which is a government monopoly, and the rights granted to individuals under the Patent and Copyright laws; a patent covering a period of 17 years with no renewal except by a special act of Congress, and a copyright 28 years with a renewal of 14 years if certain conditions are complied with. Monopolies commonly known as trusts are looked on with odium, and various States have enacted laws making a trust an illegal combination of individuals. See TRUST.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The legal machinery Collier's described in 1921 has been rebuilt piece by piece. The 17-year patent term it quoted was replaced in 1995 by 20 years measured from the filing date, and the 28-year copyright with a 14-year renewal has given way to terms running for the author's life plus 70 years. Antitrust enforcement, still novel and state-driven when these accounts were written, produced the 1911 breakup of Standard Oil, the 1984 dismantling of the Bell telephone system, and in 2024 a federal ruling that Google held an illegal monopoly in internet search. Meanwhile several of Aiton's examples have quietly ended: France's state tobacco monopoly was corporatized and privatized in the 1990s, though the United States Postal Service still holds its monopoly on letter mail.
Written for this edition, 2026.