Chapter 6 CHAPTER VI. FOURTH PERIOD. -- MONOPOLY MONOPOLY, the exclusive commerce, exploitation, or enjoyment of a thing. Monopoly is the natural opposite of competition. This simple observation suffices, as we have remarked, to overthrow the utopias based upon the idea of abolishing competition, as if its contrary were association and fraternity. Competition is the vital force which animates the collective being: to destroy it, if such a supposition were possible, would be to kill society. But, the moment we admit competition as a necessity, it implies the idea of monopoly, since monopoly is, as it were, the seat of each competing individuality. Accordingly the economists have demonstrated -- and M. Rossi has formally admitted it -- that monopoly is the form of social possession, outside of which there is no labor, no product, no exchange, no wealth. Every landed possession...