ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by organized labor,

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your mom's idea of a better chore system.

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All right, give this excerpt a read.

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ] ... and, yeah. Clayton Antitrust.

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All, right and the question: Anti-trust laws like the Clayton Act,

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were a direct response to what development in the U.S. economy?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ cow moos ]

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First off, let's remember what was happening in the U.S.

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economy at this time.

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Industrialization meant tons and tons of goods produced

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by bigger and bigger corporations.

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So consumer access to all kinds of fun new stuff?

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Great. But sometimes this increase in production efficiency

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came at a cost to consumers, as well.

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Let's see what the Clayton Act was trying to fix.

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Was the Clayon Act a direct response to A -

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the growing reliance on immigrant labor?

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Well, actually, cheap immigrant labor was a key factor

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in the rapid growth of the industrial economy, so these laws

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didn't really relate to them. That knocks out A.

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Could the Clayton Act have been a response to B -

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the political pressure of agricultural producers?

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Well, these antitrust laws were almost exclusively focused

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on the industrial domestic economy,

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not agriculture or foreign markets.

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So that's lights out for B and D.

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That means the Clayton Act was a direct response to C -

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the rise of corporations and company mergers.

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After the Sherman Act of 1890,

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more company mergers occurred than at any other point

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in American history. Instead of forming cartels,

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which the law prohibited, companies

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could just merge with each other and form corporations

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enjoying the same benefits that the cartels did.

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The Clayton Act tried to put a stop to all that, so C is the right answer.

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You know, if you're ever looking for a great loophole, forget Grandma.

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Ask a corporate lawyer.

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[ rooster crows ]

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