Economic competition in Edwardian times perhaps absorbing one chapter (5,3)
I believe the answer is:
price war
'economic competition' is the definition.
'price war' can be an answer for 'competition' (price war is a kind of competition). I am not certain of the 'economic' bit.
'in edwardian times perhaps absorbing one chapter' is the wordplay.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'edwardian times' becomes 'prewar' (I've seen this before).
'perhaps absorbing one chapter' becomes 'ic' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'prewar' placed around 'ic' is 'PRICE WAR'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for price war that I've seen is " Commercial competition".)