Industrialization, Corporate Consolidation, and Labor Transformation

Key vocabulary terms defining economic strategies, labor transformations, and corporate developments during American industrialization.

Management revolution

The transformation of business operations from small, owner-operated enterprises into massive corporations run by a multi-tiered hierarchy of salaried, professional managers.

Vertical integration

a business strategy where a company owns or controls multiple stages of its supply chain, rather than relying on outside suppliers or independent distributors

Predatory pricing

The practice of a dominant enterprise temporarily cutting prices below cost in a local market to drive out competitors, subsequently raising prices to monopoly levels once control was secured.

Horizontal integration

a business strategy where a company acquires, merges with, or expands into another business that operates at the same level of the supply chain in the same industry

Trust

a legal arrangement where a trustee holds and manages business assets or a company on behalf of one or more beneficiaries

Gospel of Wealth

An essay written that argued wealthy business owners held a moral obligation to act as trustees and distribute their surplus money for public benefit during their lifetimes.

Deskilling

The economic process where skilled, artisanal labor was replaced by automated machinery and fragmented, low-skilled work.

Scientific management

transformed manufacturing from fragmented, unstandardized worker craftsmanship into a structured, centralized, and data-driven work

New South

movement and ideology that sought to modernize, industrialize, and diversify the economy of the South