monopoly

In economics, the domination of a market for a particular product or service by a single company, which can therefore restrict competition and keep prices high. In practice, a company can be said to have a monopoly when it controls a significant proportion of the market (technically an oligopoly). In a communist country the state itself has the overall monopoly; in capitalist countries some services, such as transport or electricity supply, may be state monopolies.

In the USA, antitrust legislation has been used vigorously to break up and/or prevent the growth of monopolies. Even some closely regulated monopolies, such as the American Telegraph & Telephone Company, have been broken up to ensure competition. A monopsony is a situation in which there is only one buyer; for example, most governments are the only legal purchasers of military equipment inside their countries.

Monopoly

The world's biggest-selling copyrighted game, a board game of buying properties, building houses on them, and charging rent.

It was devised in the USA in 1934 by Charles B Darrow (1889-1967), with street names from Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he spent his holidays; he sold the game in 1935 to Parker Brothers, US game manufacturers, for a royalty. A version based on London came out the same year.

Several localized editions from countries around the world have since been released.