Hobson’s choice

No choice at all, a take-it-or-leave-it offer, so called after one Thomas Hobson (1545-1631) who ran a successful horse rental business in Cambridge. Hobson would rent horses to Cambridge students but would give them no choice in the matter. The first appearance of the expression was within Hobson’s lifetime in England’s Reformation (1630) by Thomas Ward, “Where to elect there is but one, ‘tis Hobson’s choice - take that or none.”