Free From What? Classical Competition and the Early Decades of American Antitrust

Classical economists characterised free competition as, alternatively, freedom of contract and freedom to trade. These notions were still at centre stage of the economic discourse during the Gilded Age and early Progressive Era, notwithstanding the dramatic rise in industrial size and concentration. In particular, they played a key role during the so-called formative era of American antitrust (1890–1914). The essay argues that the history of economic thought may offer an essential, though seldom recognised, perspective for understanding the rationale behind some of the Sherman Act’s early case law. As it turns out, US courts were still framing their discourse in terms of the two classical images of free competition. Proposals for antitrust reform would in turn stem from the difficult reconciliation between these images and the new reality of Corporate America.