Antitrust Law
Corporations such as Standard Oil formed trusts with many different companies and individuals. People within trusts gave their stocks to a group of trustees who ran separate companies within a corporation. Many corporations used trusts to expand their business and overall to make it more powerful. In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act attempted to break these trusts through making it illegal to form trusts that interfered with free trade either between states or between countries. This act quickly became ineffective due to the fact that it had not clearly defined what a “trust” was, therefore making a large grey area. Also, businesses started using tactics to avoid being convicted such as splitting their corporation up into companies and running them that way, therefore it was not a trust. Although this was fairly ineffective, this act shows that especially the government was beginning to take up an interest in stomping out these monopolies.