-poly, -pole, -polism, -polist, -polists, -polistic, -polistically +

A reference to laws and regulations designed to protect trade and commerce from unfair business practices.

A dealer of books, a bookseller; especially one who deals in secondhand and rare books; including the antiquarian bookseller.

The principles or trade of book selling.

Someone who sells books; a book seller.

Selling books.

A member of a duopoly.

1. An economic situation in which two powerful groups or organizations concentrate or dominate commerce in one business market or commodity.
2. A condition in which there are only two suppliers of a particular commodity, service, etc.; the domination of a particular market by two firms.
3. A situation in which two companies own all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service.
4. An economic or political condition in which power is concentrated in two persons or groups.

A true duopoly is another form of oligopoly where only two producers exist in a market. By definition, it refers to two firms which have dominant control over a market. In the field of industrial organization, it is considered to be the most commonly known form of oligopoly.

A fish salesman/saleswoman; also known as "a fishmonger".

The selling of fish.

A green grocer.

The selling of vegetables.

Someone who monopolizes or possesses a monopoly; one who favors the practice of monopoly.

1. To have complete control of an industry or service and prevent other companies or people from participating or competing in it.
2. By extension, to demand or take all of something such as someone's time, attention, or affection.

1. A situation in which one company controls an industry or is the only provider of a product or service.
2. A product or service whose supply is controlled by only one company and which has an exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices.
3. In law, a legal right to the exclusive control of an industry or service, as granted by a government.
4. In U.K. law, a situation in which one supplier or producer controls over one third of a market.

A situation in which a single company or group owns all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service. By definition, monopoly is characterized by an absence of competition; which often results in high prices and inferior products.

A monopoly is an extreme case used in capitalism and by many governments. Most believe that, with few exceptions, the system just doesn't work when there is only one provider of a product or service because there is no incentive to improve it to meet the demands of consumers. Governments attempt to prevent commercial monopolies from existing through the use of antitrust laws.

Naturally, there are gray areas which take, for example, the granting of patents on new inventions. These provide a monopoly on a product for a set period of time. The reasoning behind patents is to give innovators some time to recoup what are often large research and development costs. In theory, they are a way of using monopolies to promote innovation.

Public monopolies are set up by governments to provide essential services; such as, water, electricity, police services, garbage collecting, etc. So, in such cases, a monopoly is probably much more effcient than an oligopoly or multiopoly would be.

A condition of free enterprise without restriction as to the number of sellers of a given product.