Economic Definition of trust. Defined.
Offline Version: PDF
Term trust Definition: An organizational structure that gives control over several business firms, usually in the same industry, to a single board of trustees with the purpose of monopolizing a market. This type of trust was outlawed by antitrust laws, especially the Sherman Act, passed in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Standard Oil Trust, controlled by J. D. Rockefeller and dismantled through the Sherman Act, is perhaps the most famous monopoly trust. The use of a trust to establish a monopoly is really just an extension of the common, and legal, notion of trust, in which one person controls the assets legally owned by another. Legal trusts are frequently established for the assets or wealth owned by children. Parents then control this wealth until the children reach a give age (usually 21 years old).
Permalink: https://glossary.econguru.com/economic-term/trust