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monopoly|məˈnɒpəlɪ| [ad. late L. monopōli-um, a. Gr. µονοπώλιον (also -πωλία), f. µόνο-ς mono- + πωλ-εῖν to sell. Cf. monopole n.] 1. a. Exclusive possession of the trade in some article of merchandise; the condition of having no competitor in the sale of some commodity, or in the exercise of some trade or business. In U.K. law, a situation in which one supplier or producer controls over one third of the market.
1534More Treat. Passion Wks. 1303/2 He knoweth..that of all the dysciples, there woulde none bee so false a traytour..but him selfe alone. And therefore is thys ware Judas all in thyne owne hande. Thou haste a monopoly thereof. 1551Robinson tr. More's Utop. i. (1895) 58 Suffer not thies ryche men to bye vp all, to ingrosse and forstalle, and with theyr monopolye to kepe the market alone as please them. 1625Bacon Ess., Riches (Arb.) 239 Monopolies, and Coemption of Wares for Resale,..are great Meanes to enrich: especially, if the Partie haue intelligence, what Things are like to come into Request, and so store Himselfe before hand. 1648–58Hexham, Fockerie, a Monopolie, or an Engrossement of all sorts of Wares and Commodities. 1774Burke Sp. Amer. Tax. Sel. Wks. I. 102 You have, in this kingdom, an advantage in Lead, that amounts to a monopoly. a1850J. C. Calhoun Wks. (1874) III. 112 This hostility terminated in breaking down the exclusive monopoly of the Bank of England, and narrowing greatly the specie basis of its circulation. 1861M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 41 In the reign of Edward III [German traders] had a practical monopoly of the carrying trade. 1948Act 11 & 12 Geo. VI c. 66 Prelim. Note, This Act sets up a permanent Commission to investigate conditions in industry and trade which tend towards a monopoly. 1964Times Rev. Industry Mar. 16/1 The Act also laid down the definition of a monopoly that is still operative: a situation in which one company or group of companies acting together control one third of an industry. 1970Daily Tel. 15 July 17/5 By law, over a third of the market is defined as monopoly. b. In generalized sense. (In 17th c. often, † the crime of ‘engrossing’.)
1601J. Wheeler Treat. Comm. 65 Setting also price before hand of that which they sell, and of that which they will buy, and so committing open Monopoly. 1606Holland Sueton. Annot. 24/2 Who knoweth not that Monopoly is, when one engrosseth some commoditie into his owne handes, that none may sell the same but himselfe or from him? 1622E. Misselden Free Trade 57 Monopoly is a kind of Commerce, in buying, selling, changing or bartering, vsurped by a few, and sometimes but by one person, and forestalled from all others, to the gaine of the Monopolist, and to the Detriment of other men. 1727–41Chambers Cycl., Monopoly,..an unlawful kind of traffic, when one or more persons make themselves sole masters of any commodity, trade, manufacture, or the like, with design to enhance its price; those who have occasion for it being obliged to purchase it at their hands, and on their own terms. 1793Bentham Emancipate your Colonies Wks. 1843 IV. 412 Monopoly, that is, exclusion of customers, has certainly no tendency to produce increase of the number of traders. 2. An exclusive privilege (conferred by the sovereign or the state) of selling some commodity or trading with a particular place or country.
1596Drayton Legends iii. 517 Then daily beg'd I great Monopolies. 1601B. Jonson Poetaster v. iii, Thou [sc. an actor] shalt haue a monopoly of playing, confirm'd to thee and thy couey, vnder the Emperours broad scale, for this seruice. 1604R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Monopolie, a licence that none shall buy or sell a thing, but one alone. c1605Rowley Birth Merl. v. ii, Take her hence..To be shown up and down at fairs and markets, Two pence apiece. To see so foul a monster Will be a fair monopoly and worth the begging. 1620Middleton Chaste Maid v. iii, I would not have my cruelty so talk'd on To any child of mine for a monopoly. 1640Habington Queen of Arragon iv. F 2 b, 'Cause one of Oberons Groomes had got from her The Monopoly of transporting gnats. 1641Remonstr. State Kingd. 9 The Monopolies of Sope, Salt, Wine, Leather, Sea-Cole, and, in a manner, of all things of most common and necessary use. 1753Hanway Trav. (1762) I. v. lxxi. 320 Monopolies, or exclusive privileges, are generally ungrateful to the people of a free state. 1831Sir J. Sinclair Corr. II. 249 The Public Revenue [of Russia]..is likely to increase, particularly the customs, and the farm, or monopoly of brandy. 1831Macaulay Ess., Bacon (1897) 361 Raleigh held a monopoly of cards, Essex a monopoly of sweet wines. 1845Stocqueler Handbk. Brit. India (1854) 269 The finest salt in India is manufactured on the coast of Cuttack, yielding the Government a revenue little short of eighteen lacs of rupees, when the East-India Company possessed a monopoly of the manufacture of that necessary of Hindoo life. 1872Yeats Growth Comm. 214 They [the Dutch] secured a monopoly of trade with Japan which lasted throughout the modern period. 1875Encycl. Brit. III. 650/2 The monopoly of the right to print the Bible in England is still possessed by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and her Majesty's printer for England. 1878Lecky Eng. in 18th C. I. i. 122 The Assiento treaty, by which England obtained the monopoly of the slave-trade to the Spanish Colonies. 3. transf. and fig. (often with conscious metaphor). a. Exclusive possession, control, or exercise of something.
1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. ii. §3, I make not my head a grave, but a treasure of knowledge. I intend no Monopoly, but a Community in learning. 1653Milton Hirelings Pref., Till which greevances be remov'd and religion set free from the monopolie of hirelings. 1712Henley Spect. No. 396 ⁋2 The monopoly of Punns..has been an immemorial privilege of the Johnians. 1787Bentham Def. Usury xii. 123 Wealth has indeed the monopoly of justice against poverty. 1823Scott Peveril vii, Do you think you have a monopoly of rebellion, and that we have not a right to show a trick of disobedience in our turn? 1861Freeman Hist. Ess. Ser. i. ix. (1871) 268 Neither side has a monopoly of right or..wrong. 1878H. S. Wilson Alp. Ascents ii. 45 Peter has almost a monopoly now of the Matterhorn. b. In generalized sense.
1804J. Grahame Sabbath (1839) 8/1 Thy children, Scotia, in the desert land, Driven from their homes by fell Monopoly, Keep holy to the Lord the seventh day. 1813J. Thomson Lect. Inflam. Introd. 29 That spirit of domination, exclusion, and monopoly, by which most of her [sc. the church of Rome's] institutions at that period were actuated. 4. to make a monopoly of: a. lit. to obtain the exclusive sale of (a commodity); b. fig. to ‘monopolize’, keep to oneself (a possession).
1576Gascoigne Steele Gl. 753 Master Merchant..Can finde the meane, to make Monopolyes Of euery ware, that is accompted strange. 1595Daniel Civ. Wars (1609) v. xcviii, He..makes a Monopoly of offices. 1629H. Burton Truth's Triumph 231 The iniquity of the Pontificians in making a monopoly of Gods grace. 1693Dryden Juvenal Ded. (1726) p. v, Johnson [= Ben Jonson]..had been acquainted with the Rules, yet seemed to envy to Posterity that Knowledge, and like an Inventer of some useful Art, to make a Monopoly of his Learning. 1710Addison Whig Exam No. 1 ⁋1 The Kitcat have pretended to make a Monopoly of our sense. 1745P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 10 A certain Honourable Gentleman..is..Endeavouring to make a Monopoly of this Voyage, and to that end designs to publish by Authority. 1769Burke Late St. Nat. Wks. II. 87 Government in France has made a monopoly of that great article of salt. 5. A thing which is the subject of a monopoly (in senses 1–3).
1838–9Hallam Hist. Lit. IV. iv. vii. §7 It is one of those happy ideas which have been privileged monopolies of the first inventor. 1845McCulloch Taxation ii. v. (1852) 206 The culture of opium..is a government monopoly, being confined to the provinces of Bahar and Benares... Every one who chooses may raise opium within the prescribed limits. 1868G. Duff Pol. Surv. 186 The culture..of tobacco was made a Crown monopoly. 1878Print. Trades Jrnl. xxiii. 22 Printing the Holy Scriptures is a monopoly. 1902W. M. Alexander Demonic Possession in N.T. ii. 25 Such traits are not the monopoly of the Babylonian spirits. 6. A trading company that has a monopoly.
[a1692H. Pollexfen Disc. Trade (1697) 125 If Corporations in Trade with Joint-Stocks, should appear to be..to all intents and purposes Monopolies, mischievous to Trade.] 1871Q. Rev. Oct. 461 Other enterprises with enormous capitals, e.g. banks,..are not monopolies. 1887E. Bellamy Looking Backward v. (1890) 41 Without being..checked by the clamour against it, the absorption of business by ever larger monopolies continued. 7. (With capital initial.) The proprietary name of a game (invented by Mr. Charles Darrow) in which the players use imitation money to engage in simulated financial dealings. Also attrib. Monopoly money, money that is not ‘real’, valueless currency.
1935N.Y. Times 24 Nov. x. 6/2 Heading all other ‘board games’..is the season's craze, ‘Monopoly’, the game of real estate. 1938C. Beaton Diary 1 Aug. in Wandering Years (1961) 344 The game of ‘Monopoly’ wasn't very enjoyable this morning. 1939G. Greene Lawless Roads Prol. 5 A game called ‘Monopoly’ played with a picture-board and dice and little counters. Ibid., There were ‘Monopoly’ parties. 1954Trade Marks Jrnl. 23 June 634/2 Monopoly..Board games John Waddington Limited..Leeds. 1960Guardian 9 Dec. 9/7 My knowledge of the world of big business..I gained entirely from playing Monopoly. 1972K. Bonfiglioli Don't point that Thing at Me xiii. 110 Martland's word was as good as his bond, but his bond was mere Monopoly money. 1972Times 8 Apr. 1/3 Private tenants in rented flats are banding together..against property speculators whom they accuse of ruthlessly playing Monopoly with their homes. 1974Times 27 Apr. 10/7, I think they are playing with Monopoly money because some people say things like ‘I have lost {pstlg}10,000’. 8. attrib., as monopoly licence, monopoly price, monopoly problem, monopoly profits, monopoly-trend; monopoly capitalism, a capitalist system typified by trade monopolies in the hands of a few people; monopoly value, the value of anything the supply of which is controlled by the holders of a monopoly; spec. applied to licensed premises.
1937C. Day Lewis Mind in Chains 13 The quality of intellectual production is inevitably debased under *monopoly-capitalism. 1943H. Read Politics of Unpolitical i. 6 It [sc. the oligarchy of trade unions] is now openly merging itself with the ascendant oligarchy of monopoly capitalism, to form what James Burnham has called ‘the managerial class’. 1955― Grass Roots of Art (rev. ed.) vii. 139, I feel fairly sure that that barrack-room will have more amenities under monopoly capitalism than in the totalitarian State. 1964Gould & Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 442/2 Monopoly capitalism in Marxist terminology is the stage of capitalism in which control over means of production and distribution has become highly concentrated in the hands of a small group of capitalists.
1625Bacon Apophth. xxix. Resusc. (1671) i. 227 The Lord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was asked his Opinion by Queen Elizabeth, of one of these *Monopoly licenses. 1905J. J. Cockshott Licensing Act 1904 3 The State, in conferring upon me a monopoly license, had also granted me a commercial asset of great value.
1776Adam Smith W.N. i. xi. (1869) I. 153 The rent of land,..considered as the price paid for the use of the land, is naturally a *monopoly price. 1807Edin. Rev. X. 347 They still fight for the impossibility of driving a distant traffic, without encouragement of monopoly-prices.
1955Times 15 June 5/4 The *monopoly problem is discussed usually in terms of a single seller or a small group of sellers acting in concert, who are able to restrict supplies.
1931Economist 26 Dec. 1222/1 The ‘ring’, producing a sectionalised product, will be able to exaggerate the *monopoly profits already exacted from the helpless consumer. 1964Gould & Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 543/1 Profits include..permanent monopoly profits, more properly termed monopoly rents.
1944Horizon Jan. 67 What is valid..is no more than the good old perception of *monopoly-trends in finance and industrial organization.
1883F. A. Walker Polit. Econ. iii. i. 90 Here is a high degree of value..where yet no labor has been... This is an instance of what may be called ‘*monopoly-value’, or as some prefer to call it, scarcity-value. 1904Hansard Commons 20 Apr. 735 We think that when any new licence is granted the monopoly value should go to the public. 1905J. J. Cockshott Licensing Act 1904 6 The monopoly value will be secured to the public instead of being ‘handed over to wealthy brewery companies for the mere asking’. 1934Dummeier & Heflebower Econ. with Applications to Agric. viii. 166 Monopoly value refers to exchange value for any commodity of which the supply is sufficiently under one control that the exchange value or price which prevails for it is different..than it would be under ordinary competitive conditions. 1936Jathar & Beri Introd. Econ. ix. 170 In all cases of monopoly value, the monopolist must carefully weigh..the nature of the demand, and..the expenses of production per unit. 1953B. Spiller Innkeeping x. 190 On the grant of a new licence the justices must exact the payment of a monopoly value, i.e. the difference between the value of the premises licensed and unlicensed. |