Preventing Monopoly — Canadian Techniques

Abstract

IN this discussion of Canadian techniques of monopoly prevention, no attempt is made to argue a case for the preventive method as against other measures of control, for measures to maintain competition as against either public regulation or government ownership and/or operation. It is recognized that there is an important place in every free economy for each of these methods. No claim is made, therefore, that ‘competition’ has or should have any monopoly of the field. This disclaimer is entered at the outset, even though it is so reminiscent to the writer of similar disclaimers, ‘we have no monopoly’, heard in the early stages of nearly every monopoly investigation he has conducted.

It is perhaps unnecessary to point out that in this paper the word ‘prevention’ is not confined to the narrower original meaning of the term. It includes suppression, in the sense of preventing continuance of actions already started, as well as the process of nipping others in the bud before they get started. ‘Monopoly’ includes, of course, not only monopoly of the single-firm type, but duopoly, oligopoly, and control exercised by various kinds of combination.