Trust, a form of monopoly association in the period of imperialism. The enterprises included in it lose their production, commercial and juridical independence completely. The aim of the trust is to obtain monopoly profits and boost competitiveness. The capitalists who own the enterprises merging to form a trust receive a certain number of shares (see Stock [Share]) in accordance with the size of their capital invested and also the right to participate in the management and to a corresponding share of profits (see Profit, Capitalist). The board of the trust, consisting of the biggest shareholders, runs all the activities of the enterprises included in it, concludes agreements, sets prices and terms of payment, and distributes dividends. Not only enterprises putting out similar products join together, but also ones interlinked by a technological production cycle, mutually supplementing one another in consecutive processing operation (for instance, coal extraction, metal smelting, engineering, etc.). Such a concentration eliminates the need for suppliers, speeds up the circulation of capital, increases profits and competitiveness. The first trust appeared in the United States in the 1890s, and the form soon spread to other countries. The presence of trusts and other forms of capitalist monopoly does not eliminate capitalist competition; on the contrary, it makes it more acute and fierce. The biggest trusts dominate in the main economic branches of the capitalist countries and constitute the production nucleus of finance capital. Under socialism, trusts, based on public ownership of the means of production, are a form of socialist concentration in the national economy. The establishment of trusts in the economies of the socialist countries promotes the efficiency of the national economy and fuller satisfaction of society’s requirements.