The law of supply and demand states that if the supply of something goes up and the demand for something goes down, then the price will fall significantly. A surplus means having more of something than is needed. For example, a company produces 100,000 dolls for the holiday season. There is a demand for only 20,000 at the price for which the company wants to sell them. This leaves a surplus of 80,000. If the company wants to increase the demand for the rest of the dolls they will have to lower the price they are willing to sell them at dramatically. This is the law of supply and demand.

The term Economic equilibrium refers to a state where the supply of a product is equal to the demand for the product. This is an ideal situation that would in theory keep prices and profits consistent. When supply outstrips demand, the price of something will fall, and when the supply cannot meet the demand, the price of something will rise.

An "incentive" is some advantage (lower taxes, cheaper land, access to resources or market, etc.) that a government can offer to a business or a type of businesses to encourage the growth and spread of business in their area.

The Standard of Living in a country, or region, refers to the quality of life, material wealth, and comfort experienced by the people living there. America and Europe have comparatively high standards of living, while the majority of Africa and Asia have comparatively low standard of living.

The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913 in response to a series of financial panics. It is tasked with regulating and controlling the American banking system, which includes controlling the money supply, setting interest rates, and regulating the behavior of financial institutions.

The Federal Reserve System is comprised of the Federal Open Market Committee, which conducts monetary policy for the US economy, and a set of regional banks that provide services and regulation for private banks in a given region. The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to Federal Reserve or simply "the Fed") was established in 1913 in response to a number of financial crises that had plagued the United States throughout its history. It functions as a central bank that provides credit and banking services to all private banks in the country. Through its operation as a "bank for the banks", it controls the supply of money within the US economy. Economists widely believe that the Fed's maintenance of the money supply is an important factor in preserving growth and fighting of recessions. 

Adam Smith was a British economist and writer in the eighteenth century. He was a famous advocate of laissez-faire capitalism (the idea that the government should have minimal interference in the economy). His most famous work, The Wealth of Nations, remains influential to this day, and is something of a shrine to free-market capitalism.

The Panic of 1837 was an economic crisis, or collapse, that lasted for several years and dramatically worsened the state of the American economy. The term, "panic," is frequently used to describe a period of economic recession, depression, or instability.

Mercantilism was the prevailing economic theory of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of European history. It was gradually replaced by free-market capitalism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as, essentially, the European nations realized they could make even more money this way. In the mercantilist system, the primary economic goal of government was to establish trade monopolies and colonies to help with the redistribution of wealth and resources back to the mother country. Mercantilism was particularly influential in the histories of the Dutch, French, English, and Spanish Empires.

The English (later British) East India Company was founded in 1600 by Elizabeth I, who gave the company a trading monopoly on all trade with the East Indies (India and much of South Asia). The company was a combined venture of several investors who pooled their resources and shared in the profits, much in the way of a modern corporation owned by shareholders. This practice is called a joint stock company.