commercial enterprises organized and financed on a scale large enough to influence social and political policies; "big business is growing so powerful it is difficult to regulate it effectively"
the difference in value over a period of time of a country's imports and exports of merchandise; "a nation's balance of trade is favorable when its exports exceed its imports"
(with `in') guardianship over; in divorce cases it is the right to house and care for and discipline a child; "my fate is in your hands"; "too much power in the president's hands"; "your guests are now in my custody"; "the mother was awarded custody of the children"
(law) an explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially an explanation of the working of some device in terms of laws of nature); "the rationale for capital punishment"; "the principles of internal-combustion engines"