Industrial Revolution Concepts

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Bessemer Process

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A cheap and efficient process for making steel, developed around 1850.

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Transcontinental Railroad

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A railroad line linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States, completed in 1869.

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Credit Mobilier

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A construction company formed in 1864 by owners of the Union Pacific Railroad, used to fraudulently skim off railroad profits for themselves.

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Munn v Illinois

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An 1877 case in which the Supreme Court upheld states' regulation of railroads for the benefit of farmers and consumers, establishing the right of government to regulate private industry to serve the public interest.

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Interstate Commerce Act

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A law, enacted in 1887, that reestablished the federal government's right to supervise railroad activities and created a five-member Interstate Commerce Commission to do so.

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Laissez-faire

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In French, meaning 'to let do'; a form of capitalism that allows companies to conduct business without government intervention.

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Social Darwinism

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An economic and social philosophy—supposedly based on the biologist Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection—holding that a system of unrestrained competition will ensure the survival of the fittest.

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Vertical Integration

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A company's taking over its suppliers and distributors and transportation system to gain control over the quality and cost of its product.

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Horizontal Integration

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The merging of companies that make similar products.

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Trusts

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A business organization in which competing companies are under the control of a single group of trustees.