ABSTRACT
Some monopolies are conferred by governments and enforced by law, and these are known as legal monopolies. Such are the temporary monopolies conferred by the laws of patent and copyright, the object of which is to encourage invention and authorship, since without such laws it would be impossible to earn a living by these activities. Some times governments reserve the manufacture and sale of certain goods to themselves (e.g., the French Government monopoly in matches); this is merely a form of taxation. The Post Office service is so reserved in all countries, but the reason for this is probably political rather than economic, since it enables governments to control corres pondence in time of war or revolution. Governments also confer monopolies in the case of a large group of services which experience has shown can only be conveniently run on a monopolistic basis. These are, briefly, all services for the supply of which it is necessary to dig up the public highways (e.g., gas, water, electricity, tramways), or to acquire land by compulsory purchase (e.g., railways). To do either of these things the consent of the Government must be obtained, and at one period competition was deliberately encouraged by the Government of this country by granting the necessary powers to two sets of persons ; the result, as may be imagined, was not happy, and the attempt was abandoned. It is bad enough to have
gas, electricity, water, telegraph authorities, etc,, all with the power of digging up the roads; to have several of each would be chaos.
