Unquiet Wedding
NOW that the President of the Board of Trade has rejected the advice of the Monopolies
Commission, and said that the Imperial Tobacco Company should be allowed to keep their shares in Gallahers, the time has come for the Govern- ment to clarify its attitude to the growth of monopoly. In the absence, so far, of any detailed 'official explanation, the assumption must be that the Board of Trade is anxious to take a prag- matic line: where a monopoly has established itself, it may be left alone provided that it does not behave in such a Way (by, say, using its powers to prevent the emergence of competitors, as British Oxygen used to do) that public discon- tent is aroused.
A good case can be made out for pragmatism; nevertheless it is unfortunate that this particular quasi-monopoly should have been Confirmed in respectability—for several reasons. At a time when industries here Should be girding themselves for the challenge of Britain's entry into the Com- mon 'Market, all the emphasis' ought to be on stimulating' Competition; to reject One of the Monopolies , Commission's 'reports is conse- quently a retrograde Step. The Board of Trade's action, too, will inevitably be interpreted as an admission that if a monopoly position can be reached by two firms Celebrating their wedding in secret, and maintained for long enough to make it difficult to separate the partners, divorce will not be insisted upon. But surely it is pre- cisely these undercover monopoly agreements that ought to be most severely discouraged? As for the pious hope that the Imperial Tobacco Company will in future refrain from using the powers that so large a holding would normally give over Gallahers, it is really too naive.. Pre- sumably when Parliament meets again the sub- ject will be brought up; Mr. Erroll will need to provide some more convincing explanations of his action.
Previous page
