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["Joe Komenda" <joe AT komejo.com>]

All of this discussion regarding monopoly power, market share and unfair 
business
practices reminds me of a story about some monks who lived in England in the
latter half of the 19th century.


It seems that in order to help support the monastery, they decided to open a
flower shop in town. Now, as it happens, there were already several flower 
shops
in town, and they were highly competitive. However, since neither could 
develop
much of an edge over the competition, they all faired about the same in the
marketplace.

Not so with the monks. Since they had land to grow their own flowers, and were
essentially working for free, they were able to sell flowers for much less 
than
the other shops. Also, people liked the idea of buying flowers from these men 
of
God, so they pretty quickly gained a huge share of the town's business.

The other flower shop owners were greatly alarmed by this, and faced with the
prospect of going out of business, they sought relief from the local 
authorities
and the courts, but to no avail. After all, the monks weren't breaking any 
laws,
and people were free to buy flowers wherever they wanted. The shop owners then
went to the monks and asked them to raise prices, but the monks would not, 
saying
they were happy with the profits they made, and they could always raise prices
later when there were no other flower shops left to take their customers.

Seeing that the monks intended to put them all out of business, the flower 
shop
owners got together and hired the town blacksmith, Hugh MacTaggert, a man 
whose
foul temper and gigantic stature made him feared by all. Hugh went to the 
Monks'
flower shop, beat them viciously, smashed the displays, and warned them never 
to
show their faces in town again. Terrified, the peaceful little monks closed 
their
shop and retreated to the safety of the monastery.



All of which goes to show - that only Hugh can stop florist friars.


~Joe K