Unit 5: Topic 7 - Economic Developments and Innovations in the Industrial Age Flashcards
Monopoly
A monopoly is an industry in which a single firm is the sole producer of a specific good and the exclusive supplier of a service; the firm and the market are the same. A monopoly’s product is unique in that there are no close substitutes. The consumer who chooses not to buy the monopolized product must do without it.
HSBC
HSBC is the largest bank in Europe, and it traces its origin to a Scottish banker, Thomas Sutherland, in the then-British colony of British Hong Kong. The first bank opened in Hong Kong on March 3rd, 1865, and in Shanghai a month later. They benefited from the opening of trade in China, including opium trading.
Capitalism
An economic and political system where a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit rather than by the state.
DeBeers
DeBeers is a diamond company founded by British financier Cecil Rhodes, which owned all of the South African diamond (and gold) mines and 90% of global diamond production.
Standard Oil
An oil company formed in 1870 by John D Rockefeller came to symbolize the trusts and monopolies of the Gilded Age. By 1877 Standard Oil controlled 95% of the oil refineries in the U.S. It was also one of the first multinational corporations and, at times, distributed more than half of the company’s kerosene production outside the U.S. By the turn of the century, it had become a target for trust-busting reformers. In 1911 the Supreme Court ordered it to break up into several dozen smaller companies.
Trans-National Businesses
A company that conducts research operates factories and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters or shareholders are located.
Stock Market
A general term used to describe all transactions involving the buying and selling of stock shares issued by a company.
Adam Smith
Scottish economist who wrote the Wealth of Nations, a precursor to modern Capitalism. He spoke of the laissez-faire and the “invisible hand.”
Consumerism
the buying and selling of various goods and products
Cecil Rhodes
Cecil John Rhodes PC was a British businessman, mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He was known for founding the DeBeers Diamond company,as well as, Rhodesia.
Zaibatsu
Large conglomerate corporations through which key elite families exerted a great deal of political and economic power in Imperial Japan. By WWII, four of them controlled most of the economy of Japan.
