Q 01/05

Which hit board game grew out of The Landlord's Game, patented in 1904 by the feminist game designer Lizzie Magie?

A) Scrabble

B) Monopoly

C) Cluedo

D) Risk

Answer · why

B) Monopoly

Monopoly, the 1935 hit, was inspired by a game Magie designed to teach Georgism, the idea that land values should be taxed for everyone's benefit.

Q 02/05

Which flower's bulbs sold for more than ten times a skilled artisan's yearly income in the Netherlands in 1637?

A) Hyacinth

B) Crocus

C) Tulip

D) Lily

Answer · why

C) Tulip

Tulip prices in the Dutch Republic collapsed in February 1637, ending what is widely regarded as the first recorded speculative mania in history.

Q 03/05

Which farm animals share a Latin root with the word capital, both tracing back to caput, meaning head?

A) Cattle

B) Sheep

C) Horses

D) Goats

Answer · why

A) Cattle

Cattle once meant movable property of any kind, like its sister word chattel. Only much later did it narrow to mean livestock.

Q 04/05

Which Scottish thinker, often called the father of capitalism, used a pin workshop to show the power of dividing labour?

A) David Hume

B) James Mill

C) Thomas Carlyle

D) Adam Smith

Answer · why

D) Adam Smith

Adam Smith described ten men sharing the work of one small workshop, each doing only a step or two, such as drawing out the wire or sharpening the poi...

Q 05/05

Which word for a wealthy business leader comes from a Japanese title once used for the shogun?

A) Mogul

B) Magnate

C) Tycoon

D) Nabob

Answer · why

C) Tycoon

Tycoon comes from taikun, meaning great lord, and entered English in 1857. Abraham Lincoln's aides jokingly used it as their nickname for the presiden...