| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Network | A system of connected lines. Sparked new railroads making it easier to travel with goods because they didn't have to switch trains. Travel was cheaper because they only had to take one ride. |
| Consolidate | Due to the fact that small lines were costly, companies would combine. They would either buy out smaller companies or run them out of business; tactics used by Cornelius Vanderbilt. |
| Rebate | A discount, given or granted secretly to the railroads largest customers. This hurt farmers and other small shippers who still had top pay full price. |
| Pool | A method used to end some of the railroads "cutthroat competition". In it, railroad companies divided up their businesses in an area and then set their prices very high. |
| Vertical Integration | To control all aspects of an industry, or gaining all the steps used to change raw materials into finished products. Used by Carnegie to produce mass amounts of steel from mills. |
| Capital | Money used by expanding factories for investment. That money could be used to buy the raw material, pay workers and cover shipping and additional costs. |
| Corporation | A business owned by investors. It usually sells stock to stockholders and can use the money from that to build new factories or buy new machinery. |
| Stock | Shares in a business usually to investors or "stockholders" who will by stock from a corporation with hopes in receiving dividends. |
| Dividends | Shares of a companies profit. When stockholders by stock in a corporation, they hope to receive this. |
| Trust | A group of corporations run by a single board of directors. Rockefeller formed Standard Oil Trust in 1882 which created a monopoly over the oil industry. |
| Monopoly | When one business has total or almost complete control over an entire industry. Rockefeller's Standard Oil co. owned 95% of all refining oil in the U.S. |
| Free Enterprise System | system in which businesses are owned by Private citizens. owners decide quantities, prices and locations. Companies compete with each other using low prices and high quantities. |
| Assembly Line | Method of production made by Henry Ford. With that method, products move on a moving belt, and mass production can be easily achieved. |
| Mass Production | Making lots of a product fast and cheap. Henry Ford's efficient assembly line allowed this to happen with automobiles. |
| Sweatshop | Workplace where people work big in poor conditions for low pay. Workers here could be anyone; men, women, or even children. |
| Anarchist | People who oppose all forms of organized government. The protest against the killings in Haymarket square was led by a group of anarchists. |
| Trade Union | Union of people working in the same trade. Workers would first join their respective trade union, and then join the AFL rather than just directly joining. |
| Collective bargaining | Union right to negotiate with management as a group of workers. The American Federation of Labor led the fight for this. |
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