This article sets recent expressions of alarm about the monopoly power of technology giants such as Google and Amazon in the long history of Americans' response to big business. I argue that we cannot understand that history unless we realize that Americans have always been concerned about the political and economic dangers of bigness, not just the threat of high prices. The problem policymakers faced after the rise of Standard Oil was how to protect society against those dangers without punishing firms that grew large because they were innovative. The antitrust regime put in place in the early twentieth century managed this balancing act by focusing on large firms' conduct toward competitors and banning practices that were anticompetitive or exclusionary. Maintaining this balance was difficult, however, and it gave way over time—first to a preoccupation with market power during the post–World War II period, and then to a fixation on consumer welfare in the late twentieth century. Refocusing policy on large firms' conduct would do much to address current fears about bigness without penalizing firms whose market power comes from innovation.

中文翻译：

---

大问题：从标准石油到Google

本文为美国人在响应大型企业的悠久历史中对诸如Google和Amazon之类的技术巨头的垄断能力表示了震惊。我争辩说，除非我们意识到美国人一直关注的是巨大的政治和经济危险，而不仅仅是高价的威胁，否则我们将无法理解历史。标准石油崛起后，政策制定者面临的问题是如何保护社会免受那些危险的影响，而又不会惩罚那些因创新而壮大的公司。二十世纪初建立的反托拉斯体制通过关注大公司对竞争者的行为并禁止反竞争或排他性做法来管理这种平衡行为。然而，维持这种平衡是困难的，随着时间的流逝，它逐渐被取代：首先是在第二次世界大战后的时期内，对市场力量的关注，然后在二十世纪后期，对消费者福利的关注。将政策重新聚焦于大公司的行为将在很大程度上解决当前对大公司的担忧，而不会惩罚那些市场力量来自创新的公司。