| Term | Definition |
|---|
| patent | a document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention |
| productivity | the amount of goods and services created in a given period of time |
| transcontinental railroad | Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system, revolutionizing transportation in the west |
| Bessemer Process | process for making steel, it was easier and cheaper |
| mass production | production in large amounts |
| Social Darwinism | in Society, those who were the most fit would succeed and become rich |
| monopoly | complete control of a product or service |
| cartel | a loose association of businesses that make the same product |
| trust | A group of corporations run by a single board of directors |
| Sherman anti-trust Act | an 1890 law that outlawed any combination of companies that restrained interstate trade |
| horizontal consolidation | process of bringing together many firms in the same business to control an industry |
| vertical consolidation | bringing together many firms that were in different business to control all phases of product's development |
| economies of scale | as a company produces larger numbers of a particular product, the cost of each of these products goes down |
| business cycle | periodic growth and contraction of a nation's economy |
| piecework | System in which workers are paid not by the time worked, but by the number of items they produce |
| division of labor | the breaking down of a job into separate, smaller tasks, which are performed by different workers |
| socialism | economic and political philosophy that favors public control of property and income |
| collective bargaining | process in which workers negotiate as a group with employers |
| scab | nonunion replacement workers during a strike |
| anarchist | a person who opposes organized government |
| Knights of Labor | 1869 - national labor union led by Uriah Stephens, formed in Philadelphia |
| AFL | American Federation of Labor; allowed only skilled workers as members |
Combine with other sets
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