Bessemer Process

• The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process to convert iron into steel

Free Enterprise

• An economic system in which private business operates in competition largely free of state control.

Corporation

• a business owned by investors (legally a person).

• Protects owners with limited liability.

Stock

• the capital raised by a business or corporation through the issue and subscription of shares.

Dividend

• a sum of money paid regularly by a company to its shareholders out of its profits.

Merger

• combining several companies into one large corporation; used by JP Morgan and the banking industry

Horizontal Integration

• The purchase of competing companies in the same industry

Consolidation

• When companies combine. Larger companies buy out smaller companies or force them out of business.

Pool

• Several companies divide up business in an area. They then fix their prices at a high level.

Vertical Integration

• Acquiring control of all steps required to change raw materials into finished products

Trust

• A group of corporations run by a single board of directors.

Monopoly

• Control of all or nearly all business in an industry

Is Home Depot monopoly?

Rebates

• Big railroad companies secretly offered rebates –discounts- to their biggest customers. The practice forced many companies out of business.

Industrialists and Their Corporations

• J.D. Rockefeller

• Henry Ford

• Andrew Carnegie

• J.P. Morgan

• Standard Oil

• Ford Motor Company

• Carnegie Steel

• U.S. Steel