"Our sales agents in Brazil, India, and China report a growing demand for domestic machinery. By offering these machines on installment plans, we have enabled households of modest means to participate in the market economy. The coordination of our manufacturing plants in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Glasgow, Scotland, ensures a steady supply of interchangeable parts to our global assembly points, proving that manufacturing and marketing must be managed on a global scale."
—Annual Report of the Singer Manufacturing Company, 1893
The operations described in the passage best illustrate which of the following global economic developments in the late nineteenth century?
- The growth of transnational businesses that relied on global manufacturing networks and new consumer practices.Answer
- BThe persistence of mercantilist monopolies designed to exclude foreign competition and accumulate imperial bullion.
- CThe direct political annexation and territorial administration of Asian and Latin American nations by Western governments.
- DThe implementation of Marxist revolutionary programs to redistribute the ownership of industrial machinery to working-class families.
Answer
The growth of transnational businesses that relied on global manufacturing networks and new consumer practices.
The correct answer is correct because the Singer Manufacturing Company represents a classic example of a transnational corporation that established manufacturing facilities in multiple countries (the United States and Scotland) and marketed products globally (in Brazil, India, and China) using new financial instruments like installment buying to expand its consumer base.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Development of Industrial Capitalism and Transnational Businesses
Estimated Time:1m 30s