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Basing Point System

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Abstract

Americans generally consider apple pie, hot dogs, and baseball to be uniquely theirs in origin. Less pride of origin is assigned to the Basing Point System, originally known as Pittsburgh-Plus. However, this lack of pride in origin did not characterize American public opinion during the early years of Pittsburgh-Plus. In fact, at the turn of the century, the members of the Industrial Commission (the forerunner to the Federal Trade Commission), most members of the Congress of the United States, and later for many, many years the majority of those on the Supreme Court considered the system to be competitive and hence desirable. Before evaluating its pros and cons, a brief inquiry into its early history is in order.

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© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

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Greenhut, M.L. (2018). Basing Point System. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_90

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