In the U.S., a large-scale business combination. Typically, a corporate trust is created when stockholders in various enterprises assign control of these concerns to a single holding company and its board of trustees, thus eliminating competition. A horizontal trust combines corporations in the same line of business. A vertical trust controls all or part of a series of operations from the procurement of raw materials to the retailing of a product. By extension, the term trust has been applied to any very large business regarded as operating monopolistically in restraint of trade. See also Antitrust Laws.  

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