A bold retelling of Britain’s national story, narrated not through accounts of kings and queens, or soldiers and scientists – but through the lives of ten of Britain’s greatest entrepreneurs.
How was Britain’s wealth and power built? Liam Byrne provides new answers. Dragons tells the story of Britain’s advance through the lives of ten titans of British commerce. Beginning with the Tudor merchants who transformed England’s economy by creating the companies and colonies of the New World, Liam Byrne traces an entrepreneurial golden line through men such as Thomas Pitt, saviour of the East India Company; financier Nathan Rothschild, creator of the modern bond market; the Quaker-capitalist George Cadbury; the imperial buccaneer Cecil Rhodes; William Lever, brand-builder, philanthropist, and creator of Britain’s first great multinational; and John Spedan Lewis, founder of the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership.
Fast paced and using fresh research, Dragons explains how history’s great change-makers helped build not only Britain but the modern commercial world – before asking some of today’s greatest entrepreneurs: what are the lessons of history for the world-beaters of the future?