(4) Consolidation into one company.

At least five minor methods may be distinguished; these are here numbered continuously with the preceding four.

(5) Lease by one company of the plants of one or more other companies.

(6) Ownership of stock by one corporation in another corporation, sufficient to give substantial influence over its policy, if not absolute control.

(7) Ownership of stock in two or more competing companies, by the same individual or group of individuals, to such an extent as appreciably to unify the policies of the competing companies.

(8) Interlocking directorates, that is, boards of competing companies containing one or more of the same persons as directors.

(9) Gentlemen’s agreements, mere friendly informal conferences and understandings as to common policies.

Sec. 8. #Growth of combinations after 1880.# Undoubtedly industry before 1860 had some elements of monopoly.  Monopoly constituted part of the banking problem; it began to be evident in the railroads almost at once, and it rapidly increased as street railways and other public utilities were constructed.  But after 1880 occurred the formation in larger numbers of industrial enterprises which appeared to exercise some monopoly power.  In the years between 1890 and 1900 this movement was still more rapid.  Consolidation took place on a great scale in railroads and in manufactures.  Much of this has been of such a kind that it does not appear at all in the figures showing the number of establishments and of employees.  In the data regarding this movement given by different authorities, many discrepancies appear, as there is no generally accepted rule by which to determine the selection of the companies to be included in the lists.  One financial authority gave the following figures[7] regarding the industrial companies reorganized into larger units in the United States between 1860 and 1899, not including combinations in such businesses as banking, shipping, and railroad transportation.  Some of the enterprises here included have much and others probably have little or no monopolistic power.

  Decade Number Organized Total Nominal Capital

1860-60   ...............    2                    $    13,000,000
1870-79   ...............    4                        135,000,000
1880-89   ...............   18                        288,000,000
1890-99   ...............  157                      3,150,000,000
---------------           ------                   ---------------
Total, 40 years ........   181                     $3,586,000,000

Sec. 9. #The great period of trust formation.# The number of trusts organized and the capital represented by this movement in the last of these decades were seven times as great as in the thirty years preceding.  The figures by years for the decade 1890-1899 are as follows: 

     Decade Number Organized Total Nominal Capital