The Business of History: Tales and Lessons from Two Centuries of British Commerce

Why are today's businesses as they are? Building on WH Beable's Romance of Great Businesses, a description of 32 significant companies published a century ago, this book explores how some British commercial icons started, evolved and then coped with an ever-more-complex economic environment. Who were those Victorian entrepreneurs? How did their beliefs influence their work? What is their legacy? What has been lost and what gained? Finding that the political and religious affiliations of man...