What term describes the complete control of a resource by a single company?

• A. Charter
• B. Monopoly
• C. Governor
• D. Habitants

Answer: (B)

Complete control of a resource by a single company is called a monopoly. When one company has exclusive rights to extract, produce, or sell a resource in a region, there’s no competition to check prices or quality, so that company can set terms and limit others from entering the market. This is the defining feature of a monopoly. In Canadian history, monopolies could arise when a company received a charter granting it exclusive trading rights in a territory, but the charter is the document that grants permission, not the ongoing control itself. The other terms refer to people or documents: a governor is an official who administers a colony, and habitants were settlers living there. Those terms don’t describe ownership or control of a resource.