Money and Power. The History of Business

Citation

Mesure, H. (2007), "Money and Power. The History of Business", Society and Business Review, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 218-219. https://doi.org/10.1108/sbr.2007.2.2.218.1

Howard Means is a former Senior Editor at Washingtonian magazine. Money and Power is derived from PBC documentary that was filmed by David Grubin who forewords the book. Therefore, it was clearly written for a great audience. The volume is not an academicals one.

In the introduction, Means precises that Business with a capital B … as a system of social and economic organization – emerges only within the last ten centuries (p. 03). Business began when few people like St Gothic autonomied themselves from monarchies or churches and consecrated their life to pursue profit. According Means, during the last millennium politics and business were marching hand and hand to the benefit of both (p. 5) and industries have been defined by powerful business leaders such as Morgan, Ford or Bill Gates.

After this introduction, the book is organized around 12 chapters. Each highlights one or two persons – as emblematic business men – from St Gothic (XI ^e s) to Bill Gates. The beginning of the chapter provides linkage material to put the portraits and the events into context and to relate to preceded chapter. The main personalities are: Sir Gothic, Cosimo de Medici, Philip II (of Spain), James Watt and Matthew Boulton, J.P. Morgan, J.D. Rockefeller; H. Ford, R. Woodruff and Bill Gates. The first problem that business people faced in Christian Europe was that profit – making was considered sinful. Therefore, the history of business is presented as the history of liberation from ideological dogmata, superstition and prejudice. With the story of J.Watt and M.Boulton, or even with H. Ford, the role of business men, as separate from inventor, is underlined. The role of financiers and speculators in the development of business is treated in the section on the US Transcontinental Railroad (C. Huntington and C. Crocker) or with J.P. Morgan. The power of modern brands and marketing is developed in the chapter dedicated to R. Woodruff (Coca‐Cola). The chapter on Time Warner insists on the capacity to combine as a factor of performance and development. The importance of trust and greed (the opposite hand of the spectrum) are developed in chapters on Medici, Morgan, Philip II. The last chapter on B. Gate is an ultimate occasion to affirm that “the road to riches is open to everyone”. This history of business is written from a power angle, asking, at a given period of time, how business men acquired power, how they used it, how they were awarded of it, and what it became. This series of (business) men ‐within their century – is underlined by the idea that those tycoons or giants contributed powerfully to create our contemporary societies through a millennium process.

Unfortunately – or significantly – Means focus meanly on American Businessmen with emphasis on their money making schemes and abilities. Means do not seem to doubt that business shaped the occidental history and the contemporary world, that the profit obsession of few exceptional persons paved the way to the wealth and prosperity shared by a lot of people today. An inch of critical perspective on business (as social and economic system) should have enriched this book.

To conclude it is an easy read book though a little bit too anecdotic. It can be warmly recommended to those who want to get a large and lively view of the history of business.