AMSCO 5.7 Economic Developments and Innovations Notes

1 min read•june 18, 2024

📖 AMSCO p.325 - p.331

Image Courtesy of Siya

Effects on Business Organizations

A new way of organizing businesses, known as corporations, emerged during the Industrial Revolution.
Multiple people or groups, known as stockholders, owned parts of a corporation
- This lessened the effects of financial loss.
Some of these corporations became so powerful that they turned into monopolies.
Markets with One Seller:
- Alfred Krupp used the Bessemer process to create a monopoly in the German steel industry.
Companies Working Across Boundaries:
- Cecil Rhodes invested in a railroad project to connect all of Britain’s colonies in Africa. This project was a means to extract as many materials as possible, while paying laborers close to nothing. 🚂
- Transnational companies, like Unilever Corporation, were created across boundaries, gaining more wealth and influence. 🧼
- The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was a British-owned transnational bank in Hong Kong. 💵
Corporations
- Corporations have less risks and are more flexible than other forms of business, which makes them safer and more attractive.
- Critics say corporations undermine individual responsibility, but corporations still gained great economic and political power.
Banking and Finance:
- Another way to reduce risk was through insurance
- Banks increased as entrepreneurs looked for reliable places to deposit money.

Effects on Mass Culture

As leisure time increased among the working class of Britain, more consumption of products led to increased advertisement. This led to mass consumerism.
After a safer bicycle was invented, companies encouraged their workers to participate in athletics as they believed it taught them self-discipline. 🚲
Demand for public culture was commercialized through constructing music halls and public parks. 🎵
- One aim of mingling the social classes was for the lower class to see more civilized and rational behavior.

Term	Definition + Significance
Corporations	Businesses chartered by a government as legal entities owned by stockholders.
Stockholders	Individuals who buy partial ownership directly from the company through a stock market and receive sums of money (dividends) from a corporation when it makes a profit.
Monopoly	A company that has exclusive control over a service / commodity.
Cecil Rhodes	British founder of De Beers Diamonds; also an investor in a railroad project in Africa.
Transnational	Operating across national boundaries.
Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation	A transnational British-owned bank in Hong Kong that focused on finance, corporate investments, and global banking.
Unilever Corporation	A transnational British and Dutch venture that focused on household goods; they sourced the palm oil for its soap forest from British West Africa and the Belgian Congo, operating huge plantations.
Consumerism	A movement advocating greater protection of the interests of consumers; developed due to economic developments and innovations.
Bessemer process	An efficient process to produce steel, involving blasting molten metal into the air as a means of removing impurities, as well as helping keep the metal from solidifying.