With the advent of the 19th century, technology and large corporations became widespread. This new era of growth changed the economic scale on which businesses operated. Due to the creation of unrivaled superpowers in the marketplace, the United States congress enacted the Sherman Antitrust Act, leading to many notable cases regarding monopoly and monopolistic behavior. One of the first monopolies that set a precedent for future monopolies was the Standard Oil Company which controlled most of the oil refining in the nation. As seen in the Standard Oil case, the US government was responsible for regulating and limiting monopolistic behavior in order to protect the competition rights and natural rights of every US citizen. In 1890, the United States Congress enacted the Sherman Antitrust Act. This act prohibited all activities deemed anticompetitive by both individuals and businesses. The first section of the document dealt with contracts or conspiracies relating to the restraint of trade. Prohibits specific per se crimes such as price fixing, market sharing and other specifically defined actions deemed illegal. The last part of the section explained the rule of reason which allowed the court to decide whether or not the company's conduct, although not itself a crime, was anti-competitive. The second section of the Sherman Act focused on the existence of a monopoly and the act of monopolizing. This section defines a monopoly as having sufficient market power to exclude competitors from the market or the power to control market prices. While monopolies are often considered illegal and prohibited, monopolies are only prohibited by antitrust law when they are created in the middle of paper and bile has seen their entry into the world. The story of Standard Oil was about a corporation that had the power to direct the nation's markets and economy, and that it would do whatever was necessary to maintain that power. However, the power of law and the United States government stood their ground and defended the rights of the people. This case was a hard-fought battle and strengthened the power of the Sherman Antitrust Act. This was a story that would be repeated countless times in our nation's history, as superpowers like Standard Oil emerged and triumphed only to be defeated by the law. To maintain growth and protect people's rights, the government was the only power capable of stopping forces as large as the Standard Trust. Because of the contract between the people and the state, the United States stepped in and protected the rights of its citizens.