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<blockquote data-quote="Jack Simth" data-source="post: 2187878" data-attributes="member: 29252"><p>Unless, of course, it's someone trying to maintain a relative monopoly - an &quot;honest&quot; monopoly over a wide area, when faced with a competitor that is trying to underbid them will underbid the competetor - into bankruptcy, by taking a loss on the product/service.&nbsp; And it can afford to - it's been in place for a long time, has big reserves because of it, AND can get support from other monopolized regions, if need be.&nbsp; More, it may very well have solid vertical integration as well (say the church has it's own mines and miners, and so gets Diamonds for the materials cost to &quot;craft&quot; items, as under the craft skill, it can fund that 25,000 gp in diamonds True Ressurection for 8333 gp, 3 sp, 3 cp).&nbsp; However, a week after the competetor is out of buisiness (when comrades have fallen, and can now take advantage of the &quot;sale&quot; they inspired), the monopoly will be back to buisiness as usual.&nbsp; And that's a NICE monopoly.&nbsp; The mean ones also hire thugs, assasins, thieves, and con men; they make whisper campaigns for character assasination; bribe governmental officials to run rigged inspections or change laws to make smaller versions impossible; et cetera.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Jack Simth, post: 2187878, member: 29252"] Unless, of course, it's someone trying to maintain a relative monopoly - an "honest" monopoly over a wide area, when faced with a competitor that is trying to underbid them will underbid the competetor - into bankruptcy, by taking a loss on the product/service. And it can afford to - it's been in place for a long time, has big reserves because of it, AND can get support from other monopolized regions, if need be. More, it may very well have solid vertical integration as well (say the church has it's own mines and miners, and so gets Diamonds for the materials cost to "craft" items, as under the craft skill, it can fund that 25,000 gp in diamonds True Ressurection for 8333 gp, 3 sp, 3 cp). However, a week after the competetor is out of buisiness (when comrades have fallen, and can now take advantage of the "sale" they inspired), the monopoly will be back to buisiness as usual. And that's a NICE monopoly. The mean ones also hire thugs, assasins, thieves, and con men; they make whisper campaigns for character assasination; bribe governmental officials to run rigged inspections or change laws to make smaller versions impossible; et cetera. [/QUOTE]

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