The Expansion of American Industry Vocabulary

Test is September 20

Patent

a license that gives an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, or sell an invention for a set period of time.

Productivity

the amount of goods and services created in a given period of time

Transcontinental Railroad

railway extending from coast to coast

Bessemer Process

a process for making steel efficiently

Mass Production

production of goods in a great amount

Social Darwinism

derived from Darwin’s theory of natural selection, the idea that certain people become powerful and successful in society because they are innately better

Oligopoly

a market structure dominated by only a few large, profitable firms

Monopoly

complete control of product or service

Cartel

loose association of business that make the same product

Vertical Consolidation

process of gaining control of the many different businesses that make up all phases of a product’s development

Economies of scale

phenomenon that as production increases, the cost of each item produced is often lowered

Horizontal consolidation

the process of bringing together many firms in the same business to form one large company

Trust

a group of separate companies that are placed under the control of a single managing board

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

law passed by Congress in 1890 that outlawed any combination of companies that restrained interstate trade or commerce

Piecework

a system in which workers are paid not by the time worked but by the number of items they produce

Sweatshop

factory where employees work long hours at low wages and under poor working conditions

Division of labor

way of producing in which different tasks are performed by different persons

Socialism

an economic and political philosophy that favors public (or social) instead of private control of property and income

Craft Union

a union for laborers devoted to a specific craft

Collective bargaining

a process in which workers negotiate as a group with employers

Industrial union

union that organizes workers from all crafts in a given industry

Scab

negative term for a worker called in by an employer to replace striking laborers

Anarchist

a radical who opposes all government

Haymarket Riot

1886 labor-related violence in Chicago

Homestead Strike

1892 strike in Pennsylvania against Carnegie Steel

Pullman Strike

1894 railway worker’s strike that spread nationwide