AP®︎ US History: Topic 6.6 Flashcards

Economic system in which privately owned firms use wage labor, machinery, concentrated capital, and large business organizations to produce and distribute goods for profit

Business legally separate from its owners that can raise capital by selling stock and bonds, normally provides limited liability, and continues despite changes in ownership

Financial institution that sells corporate securities, arranges mergers, and reorganizes companies to help large businesses raise capital and consolidate

Powerful investment banker who reorganized indebted railroads, arranged mergers, and concentrated financial influence over major industries

Lower per-unit costs achieved by spreading fixed expenses across mass production, buying in bulk, and using specialized machinery and labor

Railroads pioneered large-scale finance, professional management, accounting, and national operations while connecting resources, factories, and consumers

Railroad leader who consolidated shorter lines into large systems such as the New York Central, improving regional and national service

Agreement among nominally independent railroads to divide traffic or revenue and maintain rates without formally merging

Issuing or selling corporate securities for more than the company’s assets justified, enriching promoters while often leaving the company indebted

Use of brand names, standardized packaging, trademarks, national advertising, sales networks, and catalogs to create demand for mass-produced goods

One company controls successive stages of production and distribution, from raw materials and transportation to manufacturing and sales

One company absorbs or controls competitors operating at the same stage of an industry to increase market share and reduce competition

Arrangement in which shareholders transfer voting stock to trustees who centrally direct several nominally separate corporations and distribute combined profits

Parent corporation created mainly to own controlling stock in other corporations, achieving centralized control without using a formal trust

Market condition in which one seller controls all or nearly all of an industry, limiting effective competition

Tax that raises the price of imported manufactured goods, shielding domestic producers from foreign competition

Competing interpretations portraying industrialists either as monopolistic exploiters or as efficient innovators who created jobs, growth, and lower prices

Industrial engineer who developed scientific management by studying tasks to find the quickest and most efficient way to perform them

System of studying and standardizing individual tasks to increase efficiency and managerial control over production

Steel industrialist who used vertical integration, modern machinery, and close cost control to build the dominant U.S. steel enterprise

Vertically integrated steel company that controlled key supplies and transportation, lowered costs, and dominated U.S. steel production in the 1890s

Oil industrialist who built Standard Oil through horizontal integration, railroad rebates, and later vertical integration

Oil corporation that absorbed competing refineries and expanded into pipelines, storage, transportation, and marketing, controlling roughly 90 percent of U.S. refining by the early 1880s

Policy approach favoring limited direct government regulation of private business

Government support for business through protective tariffs, land grants, subsidies, patent and contract enforcement, and permissive incorporation laws

Large-scale manufacture of standardized goods using machinery, specialized labor, and coordinated production to increase output and lower costs