Patron Saint of Free Enterprise Adam Smith.
Personal Distribution The division of income among individuals.
Physical Distribution The process of getting goods and services into the hands of consumers.
Physiocrats A group of thinkers during the Age of Enlightenment who opposed mercantilism, believing instead that the true source of wealth derives from land and agriculture; they advocated the doctrine of laissez faire.
Plausible Capitalism A capitalistic system that perpetually renews itself through growth.
Preanalytic Creative; predicting change.
Production The process of creating the goods or services to be consumed.
Proletariat Lowly wage earners, or workers.
Prophet of the Proletariat Karl Marx.
The Protestant Reformation (l500–1648) — a time period encouraging enterprise and the investment of capital; a philosophical outgrowth which made interest and profit respectable.
The Renaissance (1350–1600) — the era which saw the decay of a restrictive religious spirit in favor of a spirit of skepticism and inquiry.
Robber Barons Unscrupulous titans of U.S. finance and industry, including Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. The term was derived from the title of a book by Matthew Josephson.
