HIST 141B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Big Business, Oligopoly, Blast Furnace
Document Summary
1870-1914: pace of change accelerate, tempo of economic life increase. 10 cities account for 40% of manufacturing output. Land values increase (1873-1910 inner city property increase in value by 700%) Worsening living conditions, increase demands for sanitation, better debts, sewage, garbage collection. Living standard tant to be higher in cities. Jobs/own things/demand of things increase/greater labor force/skills. New forms of energy, electricity, more energy intensive economy. Innovations, more technologically complex, capital intensive (cost a lot to experience. New business/organizational forms: the modern integrated corporation (new big dramatic business, new and old interact) New methods of control learning, how to manage larger workforces. New patterns of competition: oligopolistic(a few firms control are large enough to share the market can"t predict the outcome. Old: monopoly/classical atomistic competition (no one can change) Economies of scale(size) saving from scale(size)--> the larger the value of output, the lower the unit cost of production.
