Cultural explanations of major social and economic developments are seductively attractive but most unreliable. Anti-industrial and anti-commercial attitudes fostered by public schools and the older universities, and the pursuit of aristocratic and gentry lifestyles by businessmen, are the leading social and cultural explanations of Britain's apparent economic decline since the 1870s. On the other hand there have been confident claims to have overturned the traditional view that wealthy merchants and industrialists aspired to acquire landed estates and gentry status, and to have shown that gen ... More

Cultural explanations of major social and economic developments are seductively attractive but most unreliable. Anti-industrial and anti-commercial attitudes fostered by public schools and the older universities, and the pursuit of aristocratic and gentry lifestyles by businessmen, are the leading social and cultural explanations of Britain's apparent economic decline since the 1870s. On the other hand there have been confident claims to have overturned the traditional view that wealthy merchants and industrialists aspired to acquire landed estates and gentry status, and to have shown that gentlemanly values were actually economically advantageous to Britain because she never was a primarily industrial economy. This book subjects these interpretations to the test of the actual evidence, and firmly re-establishes the conventional wisdom that new money characteristically seeks to acquire land and a place in the country, an aspiration that continues to be manifest today. Aristocratic and gentry cultures have not, however, been consistently anti-industrial or anti-business. Many businessmen-turned-landowners did not turn their backs on industry, but founded business dynasties; many hereditary landowners disregarded any prejudice against ‘trade’ and became entrepreneurs. Gentrification has indeed occurred on a large scale in the last two hundred years, but has had no discernible effect one way or the other on Britain's economic performance.