ons to boost their economy like the zaibatsu and keiretsu in Japan.The United StatesMonopolies in the United States have a long history. They usually are associated with industry and the post-Civil War period, but their history originates in Elizabethan England. By the time the American colonies had become independent, the term monopoly was already well established. Yet nothing was written about monopolies in the Constitution or in any writing of the founding fathers. However, several states felt strongly enough about them to prohibit them in their constitutions in the months following independence. For example, the Maryland State Constitution in 1776 stated that Monopolies are odious, contrary to the spirit of free government and ought not to be suffered. With the support of President Benjamin Harrison, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890. John Sherman, a lawyer and senator from Ohio, was the author of this legislation that attempted to curb the growth of monopolies. The act declared illegal any business combination that sought to restrain trade or commerce. Penalties for violation of the act included a $5,000 fine or/and a year's imprisonment. The act was unable to achieve its original objectives.Despite its good intentions, the Act didn't hit all its targets. The Act emerged as a somewhat tenuous plan to break up the "big business" monopolies. The weaknesses of the Act are described by Chief Justice Stone: "The prohibitions of the Sherman Act were not stated in terms of precision or of crystal clarity and the Act itself does not define them. In consequence of the vagueness of its language, perhaps not uncalculated, the courts have been left to give content to the statute, and in the performance of that function it is inappropriate that courts should interpret its words in the light of its legislative history and of the particular evils at which the legislation was aimed" Ultimately, "there [was] no question th...
