ABSTRACT
The basis of English cartels and trusts is in every case concentration, the restriction of increasing production to an ever decreasing number of factories and undertakings. England is much more exposed to foreign competition existing so long as it shares the monopoly profits, but also while in competition with the monopolists of keeping its profits low, it may be lower even than those of the separate firms before combination. The development of cartels and trusts in English industries is restricted within narrow limits by three facts, the absence of a protective tariff, the comparative insignificance of freights, and the rarity of slowly reproduced mineral products likely to form national or international monopolies. Free traders no less than tariff reformers value the advantages of combination as a matter of organisation; but they maintain that under free trade alone can monopolist organisations produce desirable economic results.
