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Why was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act important?

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act, passed by the U.S. Congress (the country's law-making body) in 1890, has been used to break up corporate trusts, which are combinations of firms or corporations formed to limit competition and control a market. If a corporation holds a monopoly (dominates the making and selling of) on a product or service, it might charge an unfairly high price for these items. For a time a large company also could sell merchandise at such low prices that other sellers of that product would not be able to make a profit and would go out of business. Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and later measures to protect consumers from such harmful activities by businesses. Anyone found to be in violation of restraining trade would face fines, jail terms, and the payment of damages.

In the last decades of the nineteenth century and in the early...

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