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Marketing's task in the organization is not only to help it recognize business opportunities and serve the various publics but also to harness the organization's energy to enhance the quality of life in society.

Marketing is human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes.

HUMAN NEEDS AND WANTS

The starting point for the discipline of marketing lies in human needs and wants. Mankind needs food, air, water, clothing, and shelter to survive. Beyond this, people have a strong desire for recreation, education, and other services. They have strong preferences for particular versions of basic goods and services.

There is no doubt that people's needs and wants today are staggering. In one year, in the United States alone, Americans purchased 67 billion eggs, 250 million chickens, 5.5 million hair dryers, 133 billion domestic air travel passenger miles, and over 20 million, lectures by college English professors. These consumer goods and services led to a derived demand for more fundamental products, such as 150 million tons of steel and 3.7 billion pounds of cotton. These are a few of the wants and needs that get expressed in a $1.3 trillion economy.

A useful distinction can be drawn between needs, wants, and intentions, although these words are used interchangeably in common speech. A need is a state of felt deprivation of some generic satisfaction arising out of the human condition. People require food, clothing, shelter, safety, belonging, esteem, and a few other things for survival. People actually need very little. These needs are not created by their society or by marketers; they exist in the very texture of human biology and the human condition.

Wants are desires for specific satisfiers of these ultimate needs. A person needs food and wants a steak, needs clothing and wants a Pierre Cardin suit, needs esteem and buys a Cadillac. While people's needs are few, their wants are many. Human wants are continually shaped and reshaped by social forces and institutions such as churches, schools, corporations, and families.

Intentions are decisions to acquire specific satisfiers under the given terms and conditions. Many persons want a Cadillac; only a few intend to buy one at today's prices.

These distinctions shed light on the frequent charge by marketing critics that «marketers create needs» or «marketers get people to buy things they don't need.» Marketers do not create needs; needs preexist marketers.

Marketers, along with other influentials in the society, influence wants. They suggest to consumers that a particular car would efficiently satisfy the person's need for esteem. Marketers do not create the need for esteem but try to point out how a particular good would satisfy that need. Marketers also try to influence persons' intentions to buy by making the product attractive, affordable, and easily available.

PRODUCTS

The existence of human needs and wants gives rise to the concept of products. Our definition of product is very broad:

A product is something that is viewed as capable of satisfying a need or want.

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A product can be an object, service, activity, person, place, organization, or idea. Suppose a person feels depressed. What might the person do to get out of his or her depression? What products might meet the need to feel better? The person can turn on a television set (object); go to a movie (service); take up jogging (activity); see a therapist (person); travel to Hawaii (place); join a Lonely Hearts Club (organization); or adopt a different philosophy about life (idea).

All of these things can be viewed as products available to the «feeling depressed.» If the term product seems unnatural at times, we may substitute the term resource or offer or satisfier to describe that which may satisfy a need.

In the case of physical objects, it is important to distinguish between them and the services they represent. People do not buy physical objects for their own sake. A tube of lipstick is bought to supply a service: helping the person look better. A drill bit is bought to supply a service: making a needed hole.

Every physical object is a means of packaging a service. The marketer's job is to sell the service packages built into physical products.

THE MARKETING CONCEPT

The marketing concept is a management orientation that holds that the key task of the organization is to determine the needs and wants of target markets and to adapt the organization to delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than its competitors.

In short, the marketing concept says «find wants and fill them» rather than «create products and sell them.» This orientation is reflected in various contemporary ads: «Have it your way» (Burger King); «You're the boss» (United Airlines); and «No dissatisfied customers» (Ford). The underlying premises of the marketing concept are: Consumers can be grouped into different market segments depending on their needs and wants.

The consumers in any market segment will favor the offer of that organization which comes closest to satisfying their particular needs and wants. The organization's task is to research and choose target markets and develop effective offers and marketing programs as the key to attracting and holding customers.

The selling concept and the marketing concept are frequently confused by the public and many business people. Levitt draws the following contrast between these two orientations: selling focuses on the needs of the seller; marketing on the needs of the buyer. Selling is preoccupied with the seller's need to convert his product into cash; marketing with the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer by means of the product and the whole cluster of things associated with creating, delivering and finally consuming it.

The marketing concept replaces and reverses the logic of the selling concept. The selling concept starts with the firm's existing products and considers the task as one of using selling and promotion to stimulate a profitable volume of sales. The marketing concept starts with the firm's target customers and their needs and wants; it plans a coordinated set of products and programs to serve their needs and wants; and it derives profits through creating customer satisfaction. Among the prime practitioners of the marketing concept is McDonald's Corporation, the fast-food hamburger retailer. In its short, twenty-year existence, McDonald's has served Americans and citizens of several

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other countries over 27 billion hamburgers! Today it commands a 20 percent share of the fast-food market, far ahead of its closest rivals, Kentucky Fried Chicken (8.4 percent) and Burger King (5.3 percent). Credit for this leading position belongs to a thorough going marketing orientation. McDonald's knows how to serve people well and adapt to changing needs and wants.

Before McDonald's, Americans could get hamburgers in restaurants or diners, but not without problems. In many places, the hamburgers were poor in quality, service was slow, decor was poor, help was uneven, conditions were unclean, and the atmosphere noisy. McDonald's was formulated as an alternative, where the customer could walk into a spotlessly clean outlet, be greeted by a friendly and efficient order-taker, receive a good-tasting hamburger less than a minute after placing the order, with the chance to eat it there or take it out. There were no juke boxes or telephones to create a teenage hangout, and in fact, McDonald's became a family affair, particularly appealing to the children.

As times changed, so did McDonald's. The sit-down sections were expanded in size, the decor improved, a very successful breakfast menu featuring Egg Mc Muffin was added, and new outlets were opened in high-traffic parts of the city. McDonald's was clearly being managed to evolve with changing customer needs and profitable opportunities.

In addition, McDonald's management knows how to efficiently design and operate a complex service operation. It chooses its locations carefully, selects highly qualified franchise operators, gives them complete management training and assistance, supports them with a high-quality national advertising and sales promotion program, monitors product and service quality through continuous customer surveys, and puts great energy into improving the technology of hamburger production to simplify operations, bring down costs, and speed up service.

A marketing orientation is also relevant to nonprofit organizations. Most nonprofit organizations start out as product oriented. Thus many colleges facing declining enrollments are now investing heavily in advertising and recruitment activities. These organizations begin to realize the need to define their target markets more carefully; research their needs, wants, and values; modernize their products and programs; and communicate more effectively. Such organizations turn from selling to marketing.

DIRECT MAIL AND DIRECT RESPONSE Direct Mail

Shopping without shops or direct marketing has become very big business, aided by direct mail, TV commercials and teletext, off-the-page selling, the telephone, the computer, and the credit card. Mail order nowadays better known as direct or direct response marketing. In Britain, direct mail takes third place to press and television and takes up 10 per cent of the total advertising expenditure. It is also an excellent medium for international advertising when it is more economical to airmail selected prospects than to advertise in the press which may be very limited anyway.

Confusion of terms can be avoided by remembering that direct mail is an advertising medium but mail order (or direct response) is a form of distribution, that is, trading by mail whatever medium is used for advertising sales offers. Consequently,

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direct mail is not limited to direct marketing: a retailer can use direct mail to attract shoppers to his store.

The main parts of a sales letter

Introductory opening paragraph needs to capture reader’s attention. The proposition is the heart of the letter. Convincing the reader. There may be a price concession if the offer is taken up quickly, or the offer may have a time limit.

Final paragraph consists of instructions on how to respond or order. Adopting the above four-point formula, here is an example of how a sales letter might be written.

Dear Mr. Brown

What do you do when your wife says the lawn needs cutting? Do you turn over a new leaf in the book you are trying to read? Or maybe you take the dog for a walk? If you haven't got a dog perhaps you pray that it will rain? That's if you have an old backbreaker of a lawnmower that's agony to push up and down the lawn on a hot day. With the new Smith and Jones electric lawnmower you don't have to push. You simply steer! The machine does all the work. It's a pleasure, really. Your wife will be surprised how willingly you take your Smith and Jones out of the garden shed. She'll probably have a drink waiting for you afterwards, not that you'll be hot and weary. It will just be nice to sit down with her in the deckchairs and admire that neat, trim lawn. Nice work, Mr. Brown!

You can see the new Smith and Jones electric lawnmowers at the New Town Garden Centre – open all weekend sо you can call in when it suits you. It comes in a box you can put in the boot, and it's very easy to assemble. Why not bring the wife along?

Yours sincerely John Donaldson Manager

When writing a sales letter it is necessary to use language which is appropriate to the medium, the product and the reader. The contents of the envelope should be kept to a minimum. Some mailings consist of so many items of different shapes and sizes that the recipient is bewildered and may well discard the whole lot! Good enclosures are those which supplement the sales letter. Some of the best examples of well-planned shots are the one-piece mailers which contain all the necessary information and the order form, making an accompanying sales letter unnecessary.

A printed envelope can be an advertisement just like the packaging of a retail product. It is the first thing people see. It can attract attention and invite curiosity about the contents, and if sufficiently interesting to the recipient the printed envelope could achieve priority over other correspondence received at the same time. The size of envelopes can be controlled by the format of printed enclosures. Large leaflets in large envelopes can arrive in a very battered state whereas smaller leaflets in smaller envelopes are more likely to arrive in the same condition as when packed. So it’s better to use the small ones.

In order to send direct mail shots the company should create mailing lists. There are a lot of ways of creating or obtaining mailing lists. The information may be took from sales bills bearing the names and addresses of purchasers, from the response to advertisements, from year books, annuals, directories and membership lists. They may be created by using a direct mail house or by hiring a list from list-brokers who specialize in

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this service. There are also firms which specialize in client's lists on computerized databases, adding and deleting names as requested, and so managing and maintaining a client's own list.

It is important to have an up-to-date mailing list, and it is bad policy to build a continuous mailing list which is never checked or revised. People do move, change their names or die. A mailing list of customers can be out- of-date after two years and in some cases in six months. Not all direct advertising, or distribution of materials, is sent by post.

A large volume is delivered door-to-door to houses, shops or offices. There are three types of mail-drop service: by specialist door-to-door distributors; by the Post Office; in conjunction with the delivery of free newspapers.

EXHIBITIONS

Exhibitions are popular throughout the world and have a long history, originating with old trading markets such as the 'marts' in what are today Belgium and the Netherlands, where British merchants sold their wool and woollens in the fourteenth century. The exhibition developed into the show attended by either the trade or the general public. London for many years became a major exhibition centre, to mention only the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Wembley Exhibition of 1924, and the Festival of Britain in 1951. In recent years the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham has rivaled London although many events are held at Olympia, Earls Court, the Horticultural Halls and the Barbican Centre in the City.

Throughout the world there are major exhibition centres, often government supported (unlike Britain!), the chief ones in Europe being Frankfurt, Basle and Milan. Many exhibitions are nowadays held in the Gulf states, an indication of the need to develop their emergent economies. Permanent trade exhibition centres exist in developing countries such as Malaysia and Nigeria.

WHAT IS MANAGEMENT?

Management is the art and science of making appropriate choices. To one degree or another, we are all involved in managing and are constantly making decisions concerning how to spend or use our resources.

Like most things in our modern, changing world, the function of management is becoming more complex. The role of the manager today is much different from what it was one hundred years or even twenty-five years ago. At the turn of the century, for example, the business manager's objective was to keep his company running and to make a profit. Most firms were production oriented. Few constraints affected management's decisions. Governmental agencies imposed little regulations on business. The modern manager must now consider the environment in which the organization operates and be prepared to adopt a wider perspective. That is, the manager must have a good understanding of management principles, an appreciation of the current issues and broader objectives of the total economic, political, social, and ecological system in which we live, and he must possess the ability to analyze complex problems.

The modern manager must be sensitive and responsive to the environment - that is, he should recognize and be able to evaluate the needs of the total context in which his business functions and he should act in accord with his understanding.

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No one had more influence on managers in the 20th century than Frederic W. Taylor, an American engineer. He set a pattern for industrial work which many others have followed, and although some economists have been criticizing his approach to management for many years, his ideas are still of practical importance. For instance, he wanted managers and workers to adopt a new approach to their work, which would change their thinking completely.

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

Gross Domestic Product or GDP is the amount of money a country makes from goods and services inside the country for a certain period of time, usually for a year. When GDP is calculated different sectors of economy are analyzed.

In the United Kingdom the following sectors of economy are usually analyzed: manufacturing, sendees (financial, professional and scientific services, leisure and tourism), energy (oil, natural gas, coal) and agriculture. In the United States the following sectors of economy are usually analyzed when the GDP is defined: construction and manufacturing; trade and finance; transport, communication and services; agriculture; and mining.

Speaking, as an example, about one of the recent year's GDP figures, the following can be quoted: in the U.K. the services sector accounted for roughly 60 per cent of Gross Domestic Product. Manufacturing sector accounted for a small percentage of Gross Domestic Product. Energy production sector accounted for about 8 per cent of GDP. Agriculture - only for 4 per cent of GDP. But the agricultural sector satisfies two-thirds of the country's needs. And only a small fraction of the total population, about 2 per cent, are engaged in agriculture.

In the U.S.A. the construction and manufacturing sector accounted for 40 per cent of GDP; trade and finance earned 25 per cent of GDP; transport, communication and services sector earned 20 per cent of GDP; agriculture and mining earned 5 per cent of GDP. By the way 10 per cent of the employed population of the United States is engaged in agriculture.

INSURANCE OF GOODS AND FORCE MAJEURE

Export trade is subject to many risks. Ships may sink or collide, consignments may be lost or damaged. All sensible businessmen now insure goods for the full value. The idea of insurance is to obtain indemnity in case of damage or loss. Insurance is against risk. While the goods are in a warehouse, insurance covers the risks of fire, burglary, etc. As soon as the goods are in transit they are insured against pilferage, damage by water, breakage or leakage. Other risks may also be covered. The protection is better if the goods are insured against all risks. The goods may also be covered against general and particular average. In the insurance business the word average means loss. Particular average refers to risks affecting only one shipper's consignment. General average refers to a loss incurred by one consignor but shared by all the other consignors who use the same vessel on the same voyage.

Force majeure is a force against which you cannot act or fight. Every contract has a force majeure clause. It usually includes natural disasters such as an earthquake, flood, fire, etc. It can also list such contingencies as war, embargo, sanctions. Along with this

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there are some other circumstances beyond the Sellers' control. The Sellers may find themselves in a situation when they –cannot fulfill their obligations under the Contract. It may happen if there is a general strike in the country, for example. In case of a contingency the Sellers must notify the Buyers of a force majeure. If it is done in due time the Buyers may take immediate action to protect their interest. If the Sellers fail to notify the Buyers of a contingency, they are denied the right to refer to these circumstances. A force majeure must be a proven fact. The Sellers are to submit to the Buyers a written confirmation issued by the Chamber of Commerce to this effect. The certificate testifies that a contingency really took place. It describes its nature and confirms its duration. The duration of a force majeure is as a rule 4 or 6 months. After that the contract can be cancelled.

AUDITING

The traditional definition of auditing is a review and evaluation of financial records by a second set of accountants. An internal audit is a control by a company's own accountants, checking for completeness, exactness and reliability. Among other things, internal audits are looking for departures from a firm's established methods of recording business transactions. In most countries, the law requires all firms to have their accounts audited by an outside company. An independent audit is thus a review of financial statements and accounting records by an accountant not belonging to the firm. The auditors have to determine whether the accounts give what in Britain is known as a «true and fair view» and in the US as a «fair presentation» of the company's financial position.

Auditors are appointed by a company's most senior executives and advisors, whose choice has to be approved by the shareholders at the Annual General Meeting.

Auditors write an official audit report. They may also address a «management letter» to the directors, outlining inadequacies and recommending improved operating procedures. This leads to the more recent use of the word «audit» as equivalent term for «control»: multinational companies, for example, might undertake inventory, marketing and technical audits. Auditing in this sense means verifying that general management instructions are being executed in branches, companies which they control, etc.

BOOKKEEPERS, ACCOUNTANTS AND CONTROLLERS

Bookkeepers deal in taxes, cash flow, which includes cash receipts and cash disbursements, sales, purchases and different business transactions of the company. Bookkeepers first record all the appropriate figures - in the books of original entry, or journals. At the end of a period usually a month - the totals of each book of original entry are posted into the proper page of the Ledger. The Ledger shows all the expenditures and all the earnings of the company. On the basis of all totals of each account in the Ledger, the bookkeeper prepares a Trial Balance. Trial Balances are usually drawn up every quarter. The accountant's responsibility is to analyze and interpret the data in the Ledger and the Trial Balance.

The accountant is to determine the ways in which the business may grow in the future. No expansion or reorganization is planned without the help of the accountant. New products and advertising campaigns are also prepared with the help of the

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accountant. The work of accountants is rather sophisticated. Many accountants have special certificates after they pass examinations in Institute of Accountants. Certified accountants in Great Britain are called chartered accountants. In the USA the certified accountants are called certified public accountants.

The chief accounting officer of a large company is the Controller. Controllers are responsible for measuring the company's performance. They interpret the results of the operations, plan and recommend future actions. This position is one of the top executives of the company.

REGULATION AND CONTROL OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

There is a central bank for all stares in the NSA called the Federal Reserve System («the Fed») which controls various financial institutions. The government and member banks jointly own the Fed. All national banks are members of the Fed. Most of the banks do not join the system. Member banks have a right to obtain funds by borrowing from their district reserve banks, to use various services which the system provides, to obtain financial obtain and financial advice and assistance and to receive a dividend on stock that the district bank owns. The Fed also sells and buys government securities (bonds). When it government securities, it increases the money supply by putting more money in circulation. When the Fed sells government securities, it decreases the money supply. The Fed is «the banker's bank» because it lends money to member banks. The interest that the Fad charges is called the discount rate. The discount rate is an effective monetary tool. The Fed uses it to «fine tune» the economy and influence the rate at which banks lend to their customers. The Fad also uses of credit controls. It establishes the margin requirements on credit purchases of stocks and bonds. The margin the percentage that credit customers must pay in advance on credit purchases of stocks and bonds. The margin is the percentage that credit customers must in advance. The government also insures deposits in case of bank failure. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (RDIC) requires the banks to give customers information about their asset quality, capital and earning. This prevents customers from doing business with banks.

INVESTMENTS

A relatively small investor cannot diversify effectively by purchasing small amounts of different publicly traded securities issued by different companies. The trading units for round lots are simply too large for effective investment of small amounts of funds. Brokers' premiums on odd lot transactions make that alternative unattractive. The obvious alternative is investment in one or more investment companies or mutual funds. Diversification for the small investor may involve a combination of these various types of investments with mutual funds, limited partnership interests in real estate, and possibly a smattering of other, more risky investments.

A mutual fund is one type of Investment Company. An investment company is simply a corporation that invests only in marketable securities of other corporations. An investment company therefore has at any given time a portfolio of securities and usually some cash or cash-equivalent assets awaiting investment. Because of the nature of the holdings of an investment company, it is relatively easy to determine the aggregate value

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of its holdings at any point in time. Valuation is not usually a problem for investment companies.

Investment companies are themselves corporations that issue shares. Investors may purchase these shares and thereby obtain instant diversification, since the shares issued by an investment company in effect constitute investment in the portfolio owned by the investment company. Because the value of the investment company's portfolio is known, it is also relatively easy to determine the net asset value of each share of the investment company's stock. One simply values all the holding in the investment company's portfolio and divides by the number of outstanding shares.

Not all companies that invest in marketable securities are investment companies. If a company invests exclusively in controlling interests in operating companies and itself has no other business, it is usually called a holding company. A company that itself has business operations and also invests in marketable securities is not an investment company either.

THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA

The construction begun in 1173 and it must have been suspended at the completion of the third ring, around ten years later, since a subsidence of the soil of between 30 and 40 cm. had thrown the tower out of the perpendicular, causing an initial overhang of circa 5 cm. More than a century after the laying of the foundation stone, was once again begun (1275) by Giovanni di Simone, who added three more levels, correcting the axis of the Campanile.

In 1284 the six stories of loggias were to all effects finished, bringing the height of the building to 48 m., and employing a technical expedient that was meant to diminish, at least optically, the effects of the inclination, accomplished by raising the galleries of the upper floors on that side.

At the time the inclination of the Tower was more than 90 cm. The tormented vicissitudes of the Tower did not, as one might expect, greatly worry those who were involved in the construction and completion. The long intervals between building activity were dictated, most likely, by the need of letting the Campanile 'rest', but above all by letting both the foundations and the ground on which they rested settle down.

In a certain sense it can be said that the subsidence of the soil and the consequent inclination had, on the whole, been foreseen. At the beginning of the 14th century the bells were placed at the sixth level, in the large opening still visible in the marble cylinder beyond the loggia. Between 1350 and 1372 Tommaso di Andrea Pisano (according to Vasari) terminated the installation of the belfry on the summit of the sixth order of loggias, increasing the correction of the axis, and thus diminishing the load on the side that was in inclination, which in the mean while had become fixed at 1.43 m.

Conceived of not only as a bell tower, but also as a belvedere for the square below - from the earliest times the loggias have served as 'grandstand' for religious events and fairs - it rises 58.36 m above the level of the foundation, just under 56 m over the level of the countryside, and its inclination, measured at the base, is over 4 m. The average subsidence of the base is 2.25 m, while the progress of the overhang, despite all attempts so far made to bring it to a halt, is about 1.2 mm per year.

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SKYSCRAPERS

Skyscrapers are the world's tallest buildings. They provide space for offices, hotels, apartments, stores, restaurants, sports clubs, and other facilities. Some skyscrapers resemble small cities. The World Trade Center in New York City occupied a 16-acre site in Manhattan. The Center included two towers of 411 m high, several smaller office buildings, a hotel, numerous restaurants, a large mall, a plaza, a railway station, and parking garages. The whole complex covered 1.1 million sq. m of space. About 50,000 people worked in the World Trade Center; it received about 70,000 visitors daily.

A skyscraper consists of 2 main parts: the foundation (the part below ground) and the superstructure (the part above ground). Both parts help support the load of the building. The superstructure transmits the load to the foundation. The foundation consists of steel or concrete supports that rest on a layer of hard soil, to which the load is finally transmitted. In skyscrapers, a steel or concrete frame made up of beams, girders, and columns, supports the building and carries the load of roofs, walls, and floors. The walls have no load-bearing function: they hang on the frame like curtains. The curtain walls made of glass, stone, or metal are fixed to the frame by means of vertical and horizontal members. In skyscrapers over 40 stories high, the wind load is even more important than the weight of the structure.

Building a skyscraper requires careful planning. First, a construction crew digs a very deep hole for the foundation. Then, factory-made steel beams and columns of the framework are delivered to the site. After the foundation has been completed, the crew uses cranes to install the prefabricated frame units. Other workers bolt the units together, lay the floors, and put on the outside walls. Nowadays, a construction firm can put up a skyscraper frame in a few weeks, but it may take several years to finish the building.

A skyscraper's interior contains rentable space and service areas. Service areas include corridors, stairs, lobbies, elevators, machine rooms, etc. These areas provide such internal systems as plumbing, heating, air conditioning, ventilation, electrical supply, etc. Plumbing systems consist of a water supply system and a drainage system. In a skyscraper, pumps increase the pressure within the pipes so that water reaches the upper storeys.

Air conditioning and ventilation systems control the temperature by circulating warmed or cooled air inside the skyscraper. Electrical systems supply power for lighting and office equipment, as well as for communication services, including telephones and computers. In skyscrapers, elevators travel at speeds as high as 600 m (1,970 ft) per minute. A group of elevators typically serves a zone of 15–20 storeys.

Many parts and systems of a modern skyscraper did not all appear at once. The skyscraper has been developing since the 1890's. At that time, builders began to use new technologies that made skyscrapers possible. Skyscrapers first appeared in Chicago and New York City, due to the rising land costs, and because business people wanted concentrated centers that would provide quick access to offices and banks.

FROM THE HISTORY OF BUILDING

Many thousands of years ago there were no houses such as people live in today. In hot countries people sometimes made their homes in the trees and used leaves to protect themselves from rain or sun. In colder countries they dwelt in caves.

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