This essay was honoured with the first prize in the University of Cambridge for the year 1785 and was influential for Clarkson’s further career. Thomas Clarkson was an English abolitionist, and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He was not only instrmuental in achieving the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which ended British trade in slaves, but also campaigned for the abolition of slavery worldwide.

"This paper has been prompted by an application to the writer, from the Hon. Gerrit Smith, for an opinion of the merits of projects promulgated by an Association, with the imposing title of' 'National Anti-monopoly Cheap Railway League.'"--Page [3] Bronson goes on to excoriate government involvement in such projects and argue for competition as the remedy for monopoly.