Things Vocab 1 Flashcards
Corporation
A company that exists separately from its owners. Can own property, borrow money, sue, or be sued
Factors of production
Land, natural resources, and capital
Capitalism
An economic system where the means of production are privately owned
Monopoly
The possession of a supply/trade in a community/service
Trust
A set of companies managed by trustees
Capital (not on study guide)
Financial assets or the financial value of assets (any asset that can create a profit)
Horizontal integration
A corporate expansion strategy that involves joining firms from the same industry
Vertical integration
Corporate expansion strategy involving controlling each step in the production/distribution of a product
Sherman antitrust act
Outlawed trusts, monopolies, and other forms of business that restricted trade. The act was passed in 1890.
telegraph
a system for transmitting messages from a distance along a wire, especially one creating signals by making and breaking an electrical connection.
Telephone
a system that converts acoustic vibrations to electrical signals in order to transmit sound, typically voices, over a distance using wire or radio.
Robber Barron
an American capitalist who acquired a fortune in the late nineteenth century by ruthless means.
Steerage
the open area below a steamship’s main deck, where most immigrants lived during the Atlantic crossing
Assembly line
a series of workers and machines in a factory by which a succession of identical items is progressively assembled. This greatly increased production, but lead to some problems for factory workers later on.
Gilded age
Mark Twain coauthored a book about rich industrialists and corrupt politicians called The Gilded Age. Something that is gilded looks like gold, but only on the outside. The title described American society in this period well. Industrialists who had made great fortunes led glittering lives. But beneath that glitter, this period was marked by political corruption and social unrest.
