From the Industrial Revolution, big business has been an integral part of the economic landscape. Yet the response by economists to big business has ranged from an enthusiastic endorsement of mass production to an immense concern about trusts and monopolies. This set collects some of the most important early responses to the big business phenomenon. It addresses issues such as cartels, trusts, mergers, acquisitions and rationalizations, and charts the development of the theory of the firm from Marshall to Coase.