Why did railroad companies and other businesses form "pools" during the American Gilded Age? Answer

Railroad companies and other businesses formed "pools" during the American Gilded Age because by doing that, they hoped to escape the chaos of market forces by fixing prices with they competitors.

The American Gilded Age was a period of economic growth and expansion, but it was also a period of volatile industril economy, with cycles of boom and recession and disparity between companies overproducing godds and others contracting.

In order to stabilize the market, industrialists and other businesses began to form pools or loose collaborations. By doing this, they informally smoothed the market by adopting puntcual agreements on production and practices. This practices led to current day holdings and other forms of oligopoly that avoid laws forbidding monopolies.