Networks of Influence and Power: Business, Culture and Identity in Liverpool's Merchant Community, c.1800 to 1914
About this ebook
It offers the first detailed analysis of Liverpool's merchant community within a conceptual and historiographical framework which focuses on the economic, social, and cultural role of business elites in the nineteenth century. It explores the extent to which business success was predicated on the maintenance of networks of trust; analyses the importance of business culture in structuring commercial operations; and discusses the role of ethics, trust, and reputation within the changing framework of the business environment. Particular attention is paid to the role of women and the important contribution of the family to commercial success and the maintenance of social networks.
Changes in business practice and social networks are also examined within a spatial context in order to assess the impact of the development of a distinct commercial centre and the clustering of commercial activity on interaction, reputation, and trust, while particular attention is paid to the effect of suburbanization on existing associational networks, the social cohesiveness of business culture, and the cultural identity of the merchant community as a whole.
About the author
Robert Lee was the Chaddock Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Liverpool where he is now an emeritus and research professor. He has written widely on European demographic, economic, and social history, particularly on the nineteenth century and specifically on nineteenth-century Germany.
