Responsible business? What can we learn from the Quakers

What explains the success and prosperity of many Quakers in business and commerce throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? Quakers have a long tradition in the world of commerce and business, from their involvement in the chocolate industry, but also banking and finance, life assurance, biscuits, shoes, pharmacy, soap, chemicals, railways, canals, agricultural equipment, and industrial manufacturing which became no less than the seed of the industrial revolution. However, within a few decades of the emergence of the shareholder economy in the mid-1850’s, many Quaker businesses were confined to history. This public lecture essentially asks two questions: what went wrong? what lessons can we draw from the Quakers in designing businesses today? We explore how different models of business such as cooperatives and commonwealth businesses may help Friends, and the business community at large, practice a responsible and ethical approach in the world of commerce.