Chapter 7. A Trade Commission for Industry

Cronyism: Rise of the Corporatist State, 1849–1929

Tags: Bureaucracy and Regulation, Cronyism and Corporatism, Legal System

09/15/2026 Patrick Newman

After the merger wave of 1898 and 1899, big business wanted relief from antitrust suits and protection from price-cutting. Patrick Newman shows the Morgan concerns working to neutralize an unexpectedly hostile Theodore Roosevelt and securing preferential treatment, then the years of lobbying for a trade commission that would restrain competition under the banner of promoting it.

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