Industry

:For other uses of this term, see Industry (disambiguation)

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An industry is generally any grouping of businesses that shares a common method of generating profits, such as the "movie industry", the "automobile industry", or the "cattle industry". It is also used specifically to refer to an area of economic production focused on manufacturing which involves large amounts of upfront capital investment before any profit can be realized, also called "heavy industry."

Related Topics:
Business - Economic - Manufacturing - Capital - Profit

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Industry in the second sense became a key sector of production in European and North American countries during the Industrial Revolution, which upset previous mercantile and feudal economies through many successive rapid advances in technology, such as the development of steam engines, power looms, and advances in large scale steel and coal production. Industrial countries then assumed a capitalist economic policy. Railroads (railways) and steam-powered ships began speedily integrating previously impossibly-distant world markets, enabling private companies to develop to then-unheard of size and wealth. Following the Industrial Revolution, perhaps a third of world's economic output is derived from manufacturing industries—more than agriculture's share, but now less than that of the service sector.

Related Topics:
Europe - North America - Industrial Revolution - Mercantile - Feudal - Steam engine - Power loom - Steel - Coal - Capitalist - Railroad - Steam-powered ship - Companies - Wealth - Agriculture - Service

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In economics and urban planning, industrial is an intensive type of land use and economic activity involved with manufacturing and production.

Related Topics:
Economics - Urban planning - Manufacturing

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