The merchant princes

"Britain is not so much a nation of shopkeepers as a nation of traders and families that have build up mercantile dynasties large and small, from corner shops to department stores and supermarket chains." "The three great trading families who are examined for the first time in detail in this book, the Sainsburys, Cadburys and Lewises (the first ranking among the richest families in the country) represent very different styles of management, business ethos, social conscience and philanthropy." "The evolution of these three very different businesses and families is told against a richly detailed historical backcloth of the changing food industry and shopping habits of the British, the development of enlightened employment policies, and the cut-throat, colourful world of Victorian and Edwardian family department store magnates, with characters such as William Whiteley - shot in his own office by his illegitimate son - and Gordon Selfridge who squandered his fortune on chorus girls."--BOOK JACKET.