This A-to-Z encyclopedia provides detailed coverage of America's business history, from the Hudson fur trade to the Internet. Informative entries profile corporate titans and tycoons, Wall Street wizards, industry leaders, and major events and institutions of American business -- spanning the period after American independence to the present day.

Table of Contents

• CONTRIBUTORS
• INTRODUCTION
• A
• advertising industry
• airline industry
• airplane industry
• American Express Company
• American Federation of Labor
• American Stock Exchange
• American Telephone & Telegraph Co. (AT&T)
• American Tobacco Co.
• antitrust
• Astor, John Jacob (1763-1848)
• automotive industry
• B
• Babson, Roger Ward (1875-1967)
• Baker, George F. (1840-1931)
• Bank Holding Company Act
• Banking Act of 1933 (Glass-Steagall Act)
• banknotes
• Bank of America
• Bank of New York
• Bank of the United States, The
• Bank of United States
• bankruptcy
• Baring Brothers
• Barron, Clarence W. (1855-1928)
• Baruch, Bernard Mannes (1870-1965)
• Bell, Alexander Graham (1847-1922)
• Belmont, August (1813-1890)
• Belmont, August, II (1853-1924)
• Better Business Bureaus
• Biddle, Nicholas (1786-1844)
• Black-Scholes model
• Boeing Co.
• Brandeis, Louis D. (1856-1941)
• Bretton Woods system
• Brown Brothers Harriman
• bucket shop
• Buffett, Warren (1930-)
• C
• Carnegie, Andrew (1835-1919)
• Carrier, Willis H. (1876-1950)
• cartel
• chain stores
• Chase Manhattan Bank
• chemical industry
• Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)
• Chrysler, Walter Percy (1875-1940)
• Chrysler Corp.
• Cisco Corporation
• Citibank
• Clark Dodge & Co.
• Clayton Act
• Coca-Cola Co.
• coffee industry
• Colgate, William (1783-1857)
• Colt Firearms
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)
• commerce clause
• commercial banking
• commercial paper
• Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
• Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)
• computer industry
• Conestoga wagon
• conglomerates
• consumer movement
• Cooke, Jay (1821-1905)
• Cooper, Peter (1 791-1883)
• corporation
• cotton industry
• crashes
• credit cards
• credit-rating agencies
• D
• Dawes, Charles G. (1865-1951)
• Debs, Eugene V. (1855-1926)
• Deere, John (1804-1886)
• Depository Institutions Act (1982)
• Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act (1980)
• deregulation
• Dillon Read & Co.
• Disney, Walt (1901-1966)
• Dow Chemical Company
• Dow Jones Industrial Average
• Drew, Daniel (1797-1879)
• Drexel, Anthony J. (1826-1893)
• Drexel Burnham Lambert
• Drucker, Peter (1909-2005)
• Duer, William (1747-1799)
• Duke, James Buchanan (1856-1925)
• DuPont de Nemours & Co., E. I.
• Durant, William Crapo (1861-1947)
• E
• Eastern Airlines
• Eastman, George (1854-1932)
• Eaton, Cyrus (1883-1979)
• Eccles, Marriner S. (1890-1977)
• Edison, Thomas A. (1847-1931)
• Enron Corporation
• Erie Canal
• Erie Railroad Company
• euro
• Export-Import Bank of the United States
• F
• Farm Credit System
• farming
• Federal Communications Commission
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB)
• Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA)
• Federal Reserve
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
• Field, Cyrus W. (1819-1892)
• Field, Marshall (1834-1906)
• Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
• Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA)
• Financial Services Modernization Act
• Fisk, James, Jr. (Jim) (1834-1872)
• Flagler, Henry M. (1830-1913)
• Forbes, Malcolm (1919-1990)
• Ford, Henry (1863-1947)
• Ford Motor Company
• Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
• foreign exchange market
• foreign investment
• free agency
• Frick, Henry Clay (1849-1919)
• Fulton, Robert (1765-1815)
• futures markets
• G
• Gallatin, Albert (1761-1849)
• Gary, Elbert H. (1846-1927)
• Gates, Bill (1955-)
• Geneen, Harold S. (1910-1997)
• General Electric Co.
• Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• General Motors Corp.
• Getty, J. Paul (1892-1976)
• Girard, Stephen (1750-1831)
• Glass-Steagall Act
• Goldman Sachs & Co.
• gold standard
• Gompers, Samuel (1850-1924)
• Goodrich, Benjamin Franklin (1841-1888)
• Gould, Jay (1836-1892)
• government-sponsored enterprises GSEs
• Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P)
• greenbacks
• Greenspan, Alan (1926-)
• H
• Hamilton, Alexander (ca. 1755-1804)
• Harriman, Edward Henry (1848-1909)
• Harvard Business School
• Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act
• Hill, James J. (1838-1916)
• holding company
• Hudson's Bay Company
• Hughes, Howard, Jr. (1905-1976)
• I
• Iacocca, Lee (1924-)
• income tax
• Industrial Revolution in the United States
• Insull, Samuel (1859-1938)
• insurance industry
• International Business Machines (IBM)
• International Harvester Company
• Internet
• Interstate Branching Act (1994)
• Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
• Interstate Highway Act
• investment banking
• J
• Jobs, Steve (1955-)
• Johnson, Hugh Samuel (1882-1942)
• junk bonds
• J. Walter Thompson
• K
• Kaiser, Henry J. (1882-1967)
• Kennedy, Joseph Patrick (1888-1969)
• Keynes, John Maynard (1883-1946)
• Kidder Peabody & Co.
• K-Mart
• Kuhn Loeb & Co.
• L
• laissez-faire
• Lamont, Thomas W. (1870-1948)
• Land, Edwin H. (1909-1991)
• Lazard Freres
• Lee, Ivy L. (1877-1934)
• Lehman Brothers
• Levittown
• Lewis, John L. (1880-1969)
• Livingston, Robert R. (1746-1813)
• Long-Term Capital Management
• Lorillard & Company, P[ierre].
• lotteries
• lumber industry
• M
• Macy, Rowland H. (1822-1877)
• Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
• Malcolm Baldrige (1922-87)
• managerial capitalism
• mass production
• McCormick, Cyrus (1809-1884)
• McCulloch V. Maryland
• McFadden Act
• Meany, George (1894-1980)
• meat packing industry
• mergers
• Merrill, Charles (1885-1956)
• Meyer, Eugene (1875-1959)
• military-industrial complex
• mining industry
• Morgan, John Pierpont (1837-1913)
• Morgan, John Pierpont, Jr. (1867-1943)
• Morgan, Junius Spencer (1813-1890)
• Morgan Stanley & Co.
• Morris, Robert (1 734-1806)
• Morse, Samuel F. B. (1791-1872)
• motion picture industry
• muckrakers
• multinational corporation
• mutual funds
• N
• Nader, Ralph (1934-)
• National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD)
• National Bank Act (1864)
• National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) A
• National Negro Business League (NNBL)
• National Recovery Administration (NRA)
• New Deal
• newspaper industry
• New York Stock Exchange
• Norris, George W. (1861-1944)
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• O
• office machines
• options markets
• Owens, Michael J. (1859-1923)
• P
• Panama Canal
• Pan American Airways
• patents and trademarks
• Penney & Co., J. C.
• pension funds
• petroleum industry
• pharmaceutical industry
• Phillips curve
• Ponzi, Charles (1882-1949)
• predatory pricing
• Public Utility Holding Company Act (1935)
• Public Works Administration (PWA)
• Pullman, George M. (1831-1897)
• R
• Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)
• Radio Corporation of America
• radio industry
• railroads
• Raskob, John J. (1879-1950)
• recession
• Reconstruction Finance Corp. (RFC)
• regional stock exchanges
• regulation
• Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC)
• Reuther, Walter P. (1907-1970)
• Revson, Charles (1906-1975)
• robber barons
• Robinson-Patman Act
• Rockefeller, John D. (1839-1937)
• Rothschild, House of
• rubber industry
• S
• Salomon Brothers
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act
• Sarnoff, David (1891-1971)
• savings and loans
• Schiff, Jacob (1 847-1 920)
• Schwab, Charles M. (1862-1939)
• Scott, Thomas A. (1823-1881)
• Sears, Roebuck & Co.
• Securities Act of 1933
• Securities and Exchange Commission
• Securities Exchange Act of 1934
• Seligman & Co., J. & W.
• sewing machine
• Sherman Act
• shipbuilding industry
• shipping industry
• short selling
• Siebert, Muriel (1932-)
• Singer Sewing Co.
• skyscrapers
• slavery
• Sloan, Alfred (1875-1966)
• Small Business Administration (SBA)
• Specie Resumption Act
• Staggers Rail Act (1980)
• steel industry
• Stetson, John B. (1830-1906)
• Stevens, John (1 749-1838)
• Stewart, Martha (1941-)
• stock markets
• Strong, Benjamin (1872-1928)
• Sutter's Mill
• swap market
• T
• Taft-Hartley Act
• tariffs
• Tax Reform Act (1986)
• Taylor, Frederick Winslow (1856-1915)
• telecommunications industry
• telegraph
• television industry
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
• ticker tape
• Time Warner
• Treasury bonds
• Turner, Ted (1938-)
• turnpikes
• typewriter
• U
• Union Pacific Railroad
• United Automobile Workers (UAW)
• United Fruit Company
• United Mine Workers of America
• U.S. Steel Corp.
• utilities
• V
• Vail, Theodore N. (1845-1920)
• Vanderbilt, Cornelius (1794-1877)
• Veblen, Thorstein (1857-1929)
• Volcker, Paul (1927-)
• Volstead Act
• W
• wage and price controls
• Walton, Sam (1918-1992)
• Wanamaker, John (1838-1922)
• Ward, Aaron Montgomery (1843-1913)
• Watson, Thomas A. (1854-1934)
• Watson, Thomas J. (1874-1956)
• Weill, Sanford (1933-)
• Welch, John F. (1935-)
• Wells Fargo
• Western Union Telegraph Co.
• Westinghouse, George, Jr. (1846-1914)
• Weyerhaeuser, Frederick (1834-1914)
• Wharton School
• Whitney, Eli (1765-1825)
• Whitney, Richard (1888-1974)
• Winfrey, Oprah (1954-)
• women in American business
• Woolworth, Frank Winfield (1852-1919)
• Works Progress Administration (WPA)
• WorldCom
• Y
• yankee peddlers
• Young, Owen D. (1874-1962)
• CHRONOLOGY
• SELECTED PRIMARY DOCUMENTS
• Hudson’s Bay Company Charter, 1670
• Alexander Hamilton, Report on the Subject of Manufactures, 1791
• Constitution of the American Federation of Labor, 1886
• Interstate Commerce Act, 1887
• Andrew Carnegie, “Wealth,” 1889
• Sherman Antitrust Act, 1890
• Pure Food and Drug Act, 1906
• Standard Oil Company of New Jersey et al. v. United States, 1911
• Clayton Antitrust Act, 1914
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Forgotten Man”
• Securities Exchange Act, 1934
• National Labor Relations Act, 1935
• Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “ Military-Industrial Complex” Address, 1961
• Ronald Reagan’s Address to the Nation on the Economy, 1981
• United States v. Microsoft, 2000
• GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY