U.S History

Entrepreneurs

People who build and manage businesses or enterprise in order to make profit

Free enterprise

an economy where the market determines prices, products, and services rather than the government

Laissez-Faire Policies

Allowed businesses to operate under minimal government regulation (The government encouraged this)

Mass production

These systems depended upon machinery to carry out tasks that were once done with hand tools

In______,delegates from 27 countries divided the globe into_______

1884, 24 Time Zones

Rail connections helped expand small hubs such as

Meridian, Mississippi, Americus, Georgia, Atlanta

Monopoly

Complete control over a product (Companies used horizontal integration to gain monopoly)

Horizontal integration

A system of consolidating many firms into the same business

Who was one of the first people to start horizontal integration

Rockefeller

Trust

When unable to buy stock of another company, a new business organization started. Companies assigned their stock to a board of trustees.

Vertical integration

Allowed companies to reduce their costs of product

Interstate commerce Commission (ICC)

To monitor railroad shipping rates

Sherman Antitrust act

Outlawed any trust that operated “in restrain of trade or commerance among the seven states”

Sweatshops

Workers lived in small, hot, dark, dirty workhouses

Company Towns

The housing in communities that forced miners to live in isolated communities near their workplace

Wage slavery

Employers could hold onto workers through this system

Collective bargaining

negotiating w their employer for a higher wage or better working conditions

Socialism

An economic and political philosophy that favors public, instead of private control of property and income

Knights of labor

In 1869, Uriah Stephens founded a labor union called the knights of labor

American Railway Union

First industrial union; open to all railway workers

American Federation Of Labor (AFL)

A loose organization of skilled workers from local craft unions (100 of em, in 1886)

National Trade Union

First National union; open to workers from all trades

“New” immigrants

Immigrants always had come to America for economic and religious opportunity and freedom

Nativism

A tendency towards preferring native-born, white Americans

Ellis, and Angel Island

1. New York harbor station

2. A processing center for Chinese immigrants in SF in 19