Railroad Monopolies

A monopoly is when one person or group has exclusive control over something. A modern day example of a monopoly is Microsoft. Microsoft completely dominated the computer market by using their dominance and billions of dollars from the personal operating systems and business applications to develop products for multimedia, business operating systems, and now even games and on-line services. People in the late in 1800s dominated and abused other things, such as railroads. Railroad companies could charge a farmer very high just to transport their crops a short distance and the farmers could not do anything about it. The railroad monopolies of the 1800s were very hazardous and nearly controlled the way every westerner performed their business and lived their lives.…