Answer:
The answer to the question: Congress passed both the Interstate Commerce Act an the Sherman Anti-Trust act, in the hope that it could:____, would be: exert control, at last, over how interstate, and private, commerce, was being carried out, and place boundaries on certain activities being carried out by businessmen and that were not being able to be controlled by the individial states.
Explanation:
The Interstate Commerce Act, which was passed in 1887 was the first time that the federal government, through Congress, intervened in the topic of interstate commerce and exerted control over the railroad rates to regulate them and avoid corruption. Historically, the states had been already trying to pass some legislation on this regard, but it was deemed unconstitutional, as they could not intervene with companies from other states. As such, Congress passed the law and placed federal control through the creation of the ICC, the Interstate Commerce Commission. Then, came the problem of the formation of monopolies in commerce, as the country industrialized really fast. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was thus born in 1890 as an attempt from Congress again to curtail the corrupt formation of monopolies and the different ways that bigger businesses were preventing the free competition in the U.S. Both Acts, then, sought to place limitations on how commerce was being carried in the country, and dissolve the conflict between states on commercial regulation of interstate commerce.
