Independent of combination, there is probably no legal wrong in merely wishing ill to a man, withdrawing one’s custom from him, competing with him, or even, possibly, in injuring his trade.  There is an ancient case where the captain of an English ship engaged in a certain trade, to wit, the slave trade, arrived off a beach on the coast of Africa and was collecting his living cargo, when a second ship, arriving too late to get a load itself, fired a cannon over the heads of the negroes, and they, with the chief who was selling them, fled in terror to the forest.  The captain of the first ship went back to London and brought suit against the captain of the second ship for injuring his trade and was allowed to recover damages; but it may be doubted if that is good law; although in 1909 a Minnesota court decided that a barber could sue an enemy if he maintained an opposition barbershop solely for the purpose of injuring his business; and a few years ago in Louisiana a street railway foreman was held liable in damages for instructing his men not to frequent the plaintiff’s store.[1] I say to you:  “Do not trade with Smith, he is not a good person to deal with,” or, “Do not take employment with him, he will treat you cruelly”; and in either case, unless I can be convicted of slander, he has no remedy against me if I am acting alone.

[Footnote 1:  Tarleton v.  McGawley, Peak, N.P.C. 270; Tuttle v.  Buck, 110 N.W. 946; Graham v.  St. Charles St. Ry.  Co., 47 La.  Ann. 214.]

Now, this great law of conspiracy applies equally and always to combinations of capital or of employers, to trusts, contracts in restraint of trade and blacklists, as well as to unlawful labor combinations, unlawful union rules, and boycotts.  The statutes directed against both originated about the same time and have run historically on all-fours together.  The old offences of forestalling and regrating may have been lost sight of, and possibly the statutes against them fallen into disuse, although they were expressly made perpetual by the 13th Elizabeth in 1570 and not repealed until the 12th George III in 1772; but the principle invalidating restraint of trade and contracts in restraint of trade remained as alive as that prohibiting unlawful combinations of labor.  The latter, indeed, has largely disappeared.  Both strikes and trades-unions, once thought unlawful in England, are made lawful now by statute, but a contract in restraint of trade or a monopolistic combination of capital is as unlawful as it ever was both in England and in this country; and the common law is only re-enforced by our State statutes and applied to matters of interstate commerce as well, by the Sherman Act.  Closely connected with both is the principle of reasonable rates in the exercise of franchises; excessive toll contrary to common custom, as we found forbidden in 1275.  The first statute against forestalling merely inflicts a punishment on forestallers and dates ten years later,