The idea was that government should leave business alone, allow it to operate unregulated.
这个理论的思想是政府应该对商业持放任不管的态度，让它不受调控地运行。
Legislators weren’t supposed to pass a lot of laws, or worry about regulating business practices.
立法者不应该制定很多法律，或者操心调控商业操作。
When people did challenge a company’s business conduct,
当人们质疑一家公司的商业行为时，
I mean, I mean, in court cases, well, the few laws that did exist were usually interpreted in favor of business interests.
我是说在法庭上，存在的几部法律通常都按照有利于企业利益的角度被解读。
But over time, it started becoming increasingly obvious and troubling to the public that some of these big companies simply had too much control.
但是随着时间流逝，一些大公司的控制权过大对公众来说开始变得越来越明显和令人不安。
There were criticisms that owners had too much opportunity to exploit workers, workers and consumers, because they could control prices and wages.
有些人批评道，大公司老板有过多的机会压榨工人，工人和消费者，因为他们能控制价格和薪酬。
And small business owners and small farmers couldn’t compete.
而小公司老板和小农场主无法与他们竞争。
So there was bad press, bad publicity, enough that the government eventually felt it had to do something,
所以负面报道，负面宣传足够多到终于让政府感觉必须采取措施了，
so it passed two key pieces of legislation.
所以它通过了两个关键的法律。
One law was designed to regulate the prices set by the railroads;
一条法律是设计来调控铁路设定的价格；
another made it illegal for trusts to be used to limit competition.
另一条将使用信托限制竞争的行为定为了非法的。
Both were aimed squarely at reducing the exclusive control that existed in some industries.
这两条法律都旨在直接减少存在于一些行业的专属控制。