"In reality . . . from Adam Smith on (and before that), monopoly was always understood as being created by government. Indeed, The Wealth of Nations was a critique of mercantilism, the system of state-sponsored monopolies, protectionism, and monetary superstition that plagued European economies at the time (1776)." [Italics added]
This is a definition I've been looking for, supplied by Thomas di Lorenzo, author of How Capitalism Saved America: The Untold History of Our Country, from the Pilgrims to the Present -- 330.122 DIL on the Dewey decimal chart at OP library.
It's important for OP, which has been practicing mercantilism for some time now, picking and choosing commercial operators, generating arguments about which to pick and choose and inhibiting growth and prosperity even when picking winners, as anyone is bound to do now and then. Consider the hundred monkeys at a hundred typewriters and their (maybe superior, who knows?) version of "Hamlet."
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