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Glossary: Investment Game Terms

This glossary includes key terms used in the invest-in-growth games played by visitors to the New England Economic Adventure. Some of the terms may be familiar to middle school students, but most are probably familiar to high school students.

Lowell and the Early Textile Mills | Pope and Bicycles | Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Computers

Lowell and the Early Textile Mills

Artifacts
Objects produced by humans.

Competition
When two or more businesses strive for the same customer or market.

Demand
The willingness on the part of people to buy certain quantities of goods and services at various price levels.

Dividend
Payment made by corporations to shareholders. Dividends are a distribution of the profits of the company.

Enterprise
Entrepreneurial skill—the skill and ability to take a business risk and create profit.

Exports
Goods and services produced in one country and sent to another country to be sold.

Gin (cotton)
A machine used for separating the seeds from cotton.

Imports
Goods and services bought from foreign countries.

Inputs
Factors of production such as land, labor, and capital that are combined to produce output of goods and services.

Investment
Purchases of equipment, structures, and other long-lived inputs that are used by workers to produce goods and services. Investment requires giving up consumption in the present, but it is done to lead to higher output and consumption in the future.

Labor
Workers in the economy who, with the use of equipment, structures, and other capital, produce goods and services.

Manufacturing
Making or processing a product with the use of industrial machines.

Mill
A building or group of buildings equipped with machinery for processing raw material into a finished or industrial product—for example, a textile, lumber, or steel mill.

Profit
The basic incentive for operating a business in capitalism; it consists of the amount of money left over after all costs are paid.

Stock
Ownership of a corporation expressed as shares.

Stock market
Place where stocks are bought and sold—New York Stock Exchange, Boston Stock Exchange.

Supply
Quantities of goods and services that sellers are willing to offer at various prices at a given time and place.

Share
Unit of ownership in a corporation. People who own stock in a corporation are known as shareholders.

Tariff
Tax on items that are imported.

Technology
Application of knowledge to meet the wants of people.

Textile
A cloth that is manufactured by weaving or knitting a fabric.

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Pope and Bicycles

Boom
A phase of the business cycle characterized by high levels of output and some upward pressure on the general price level. Boom conditions encourage the private sector to increase investment because of growing opportunities to sell goods and services.

Capital
Equipment, structures, and other long-lived inputs that are used by workers to produce goods and services. Capital is the result of investment. Capital is distinguished from intermediate inputs, which are used up in the course of production. The collective value of all equipment, structures, and other capital is referred to as capital stock.

Corset
Close-fitting undergarment worn by women to give them support or a desired figure to the body from the hips to the breast.

Emancipation
Setting free from the power of another—for example, from slavery, dependence, or tyranny.

Entrepreneur
Person who owns, operates, and takes the risk of starting a business venture.

High-Wheel Bicycle
The first all-metal bicycle. It came on the market in 1871 and cost an average worker six months’ pay. The pedals were still attached directly to the front wheel. Riders could buy a wheel as large as their leg length; the bigger the wheel, the farther one could go with one rotation.

Interchangeable part
Part of a machine that is capable of being replaced with a similar or standardized part.

Product
Anything produced by human or mechanical effort or by a natural process.

Market
A place/mechanism allowing consumers and producers to meet to exchange goods and services.

Mass production
Using standardized designs and assembly-line techniques to manufacture goods in large quantities.

Recession
The contracting phase of the business cycle, when output declines and unemployment increases.

Retool
To alter the production capabilities of a factory—for example, by installing a new set of machinery and tools for making a different product.

Services
Products that people buy that are not tangible—for example, the cutting of hair by a hairdresser, the delivery of food in a full-service restaurant, the preparation of papers and documents by a lawyer, the care provided by a doctor or nurse.

Union Soldier
A member of the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Velocipede
An early bicycle having pedals attached to the front wheels. The rigidity of the frame and the iron-banded wheels resulted in a bone-shaking experience for riders on the cobblestone streets of the day, earning it the name of "boneshaker."

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Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Computers

Aerospace
Space comprising the earth's atmosphere and the space beyond.

Application (computer)
A program that performs one of the tasks for which a computer is used, such as word processing or numerical computations.

Behemoth
Something enormous in size or power.

Bonus
A payment in addition to the amount contracted for.

Charter
A document issued by a legislature or authority to create a public or private corporation.

Corporation
Form of business organization requiring a government charter granting the company specific powers separate from the individuals that own the firm. The corporation has the right to sue and to issue stock and can itself be sued.

Data General Corporation
U.S. computer manufacturer that introduced the Nova minicomputer sometime before 1978.

Data processing
Conversion of raw data into machine-readable form and subsequent processing of the data by a computer.

Defense contractor
A business or individual that develops and manufactures goods and services that are sold to a government to be used for national defense purposes.

Digital
Of, relating to, or using calculations by numerical methods or by discrete units. Also, a device that can read, write, or store information that is represented in numerical form.

Electrical engineering
Training in the practical applications of the theory of electricity.

Engineer
Person who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems.

Honeywell
Early U.S. computer manufacturer. In 1957, Honeywell jointly introduced with Raytheon the Datamatic 1000, one of the first computers in the United States. Honeywell's 800 and 400 models earned a solid reputation for advanced features.

IBM
The best known American computer manufacturer. Founded by Thomas J. Watson in 1911, IBM today makes both mainframes and personal computers.

Innovation
The act of introducing something new and significantly different.

Inventory
The stock of goods that a business has for sale.

Mainframe
A large, powerful computer serving many connected terminals and usually used by large, complex organizations.

Minicomputer
Computers built between 1963 and 1987 that were smaller and less powerful than mainframe computers, the prevailing computer before the minicomputer. Minicomputers were characterized by short word lengths (8 to 32 bits) and limited software facilities. Their low cost made them suitable for a wide variety of applications.

PDP-8
Minicomputer introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1965 that sold for $18,000 and triggered the minicomputer industry. It was the first parallel general-purpose digital computer sold in a tabletop configuration. The PDP-8 carried DEC from a small, unknown technical company into the ranks of the major computer makers.

Pent-up demand
When demand for a product is exceptionally strong, perhaps because the demand built up during a recession when people could not afford to buy the product or because the product was temporarily not available to be sold.

Personal computer
A computer built for use by one individual at a time in an office or at home or school.

Profit margin
The difference between the selling price of a product and the costs associated with its production and sale.

Programmable
Capable of handling a set of coded working instructions.

Real estate
Land including all the natural resources and permanent buildings on it.

Specialized technician
A person with the knowledge and skill needed to carry out a specific technical procedure.

Synthesizer
An electronic instrument often played with a keyboard and producing complex sounds, such as those of various other instruments.

Word processing
The creation, input, editing, and production of words in documents and texts by means of a computer system.

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