Seeking to gain a monopoly even so? (5,3)
I believe the answer is:
after all
'even so?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'seeking to gain a monopoly' is the wordplay.
'seeking' becomes 'after' (I've seen this in another clue).
'to gain a monopoly' becomes 'all' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'after'+'all'='AFTER ALL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for after all that I've seen before include "in spite of expectations to the contrary" , "Nevertheless, when everything has been considered" , "In spite of everything" , "anyway" , "in the final reckoning?" .)