In the Gilded Age, how did monopolies affect many small businesses?

Question: In the Gilded Age, how did monopolies affect many small businesses?

Answer:

In the Gilded Age, trusts were accountable for hurting a lot of little companies and this implied that there could well no longer be a lot of competition and virtually no area for new enterprise. The latter were very often squeezed out of the market by many companies engaging in predatory pricing – where larger companies with a lot of leverage and influence would cut prices for a market sector until all the small competition was eliminated. In addition, monopolies were using exclusive dealing, which meant that suppliers and distributors had to communicate only with the monopolies while completely removing small businesses from the market. This made it hard for consumer choices innovation and development of new businesses in various fields and industries; this in turn brought about the inability of new businesses to entirely enjoy economic growth along with competitive markets.