or from a legal
aspect. Economically, the term Trust is applied to a class of
syndicates which have established a partial or total monopoly in
certain productive industries by securing the ownership of a
sufficient proportion of the instruments of production to enable them
to control prices. Legally, a Trust is a form of business
association--"a trust of corporate stocks by means of which a body of
men united in interest are enabled to carry on business through
separate corporate agencies."[129] It is a company of companies, under
which, while the formal structure of the original companies is
maintained, they are incorporated as single cells in the larger
organism which directs their activity. The constitution of the Trust
is best explained by a description of its origin in the industry of
the United States. The owners of a majority of the shares in a number
of corporations hitherto separate in their constitution (though they
may have been acting in agreement with one another, or have been
largely owned by the same persons) agree to place their shares of
stock in the full control of a body of persons called trustees. These
trustees may or may not be shareholders or directors of the several
corporations. They "act under an agreement that they will cast the
votes represented by the stock so held for the perpetuation of the
trust during the time agreed upon, and in furtherance of its purposes:
will elect the officers provided for by law in each of the
corporations, and in behalf of all of them manage the business of all,
except, it may be, in small matters of detail." "Each shareholder,
upon surrendering his corporate stock to the board of trustees,
receives a certificate entitling him to an interest in all the
property and earnings of all the corporations of the trust."[130]

These certificates are believed in many cases to certify a money value
far in excess of the real value of the stock surrendered at the time
when the Trust was formed. The Report of the New York Chamber of
Commerce for 1887-88 estimates the "certificates" given by the Sugar
Trust to the shareholders of its constituent corporations as bearing
"water" to the amount of 200 per cent., so that the nominal dividend
of 10-1/2 per cent. paid during the year represented a real net profit
of 31-1/2 per cent. Such statements cannot, however, be verified,
since it is the interest of the only persons who actually know to keep
secret such an arrangement.

It is