Legal Monopolies
The term "monopoly," which etymologically means "one seller" (Greek mono + polein), originally denoted a law or governmental policy that coercively prohibits or discourages sales of certain goods by any party other than one designated provider. The word can also denote the provider receiving this privilege. More recently, the term has also been applied more loosely to an individual or firm that becomes the only seller of its product without such coercion. These two meanings, we shall find, are only superficially related and should be treated as distinct concepts. We are principally concerned here with monopolies obtained by governmental coercion (de jure monopolies), which we shall call legal monopolies. They will be contrasted with natural monopolies (market or de facto monopolies) later in this section, and the latter will be addressed again in Section 5.
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