To What Extent Was The Sherman Act Of 1890

1068 Words5 Pages

The 1800’s were a time of widespread growth due to the Industrial Revolution which introduced new manufacturing processes and tools, greatly increasing productivity. As the 19th century came to an end, the Industrial Revolution enforced government intervention into the market place righting wrongs that had come to fruition. Among these interventions were the Sherman Act of 1890, the Greenbacks over the Gold Standard, 1862 and the Interstate Commerce Act, 1887. Even though the United States practiced in a free market, these government interventions moved to reinstate economic opportunities and to correct inequalities in the American economic markets. At first with the widespread Industrial Revolution, everyone encouraged the growth of …show more content…

The most notorious of monopolies included the sugar industry, the whisky industry and the tobacco industry. Not only was the competition affected, but also the consumers who were paying higher prices and workers who were unable to change companies in an industry due to lack of competition. The Sherman Act of 1890 was the first United States antitrust law that was put in place to maintain free competition in business and made it a crime to monopolize any part of trade or commerce. The Sherman Act of 1890 was an antitrust law which was intended to defend trade and commerce from unfair business practices that make it possible to do away with competition based on their large economies of scale. It was named after its primary supporter John Sherman, an Ohio Senator on July 2, 1890 and further signed into law by President Benjamin …show more content…

Prior to the Civil War, the United States currency was based on gold which required every coin or dollar in circulation to have corresponding gold to support that monetary value. However, during the Civil War our government transitioned from this gold standard to Greenbacks. Greenbacks were paper currency, printed on green paper, in two forms: Demand Notes and United States Notes. They were legal tender but did not hold comparable gold to support that legal

Open Document