When the government (congress) first sought to prosecute Standard oil among other companies in the late 1880s for noncompetitive behavior, the monopoly label wa

When the government (congress) first sought to prosecute Standard oil among other companies in the late 1880s for noncompetitive behavior, the monopoly label was applied. This was a part of the actual formation of the Sherman antitrust act which passed in 1890, at which time standard oil refined about 19% of the oil in the US. I had my facts wrong though, I didn't realize that it took another 21 years after that for Standard oil to actually be broken up. That said, my point is largely more about the label of monopoly by the government than whether or not the company was broken up, so I think the argument still stands.