Money and Power: The History of Business

Money & Power

"The project reveals a sharp eye for details and even sharper personalities. . . .The book tells stories with colorful messages."
-Toronto Globe and Mail

"Quite intriguing."
-ecompany

"Money and Power offers essential insight into the forces that drive the West's great economic engine."
-Executive Edge, Continental magazine

"Refreshingly simple . . . intriguing tales."
-Business 2.0

"A gripping journey."
-PA Centre Daily Times

"Means extracts some valuable lessons for today."
-Fort Worth Star-Telegram

This companion book to CNBC's acclaimed documentary Money and Power provides an expansive global view of the moguls and dynasties that have defined business in the last millennium. Deftly tracing the movement of trade, banking, industry, and commerce from East to West, from ancient times to modern, it offers important lessons that are of timeless value-and inspiration for the next generation of groundbreakers and visionaries of business.

"Born at a time when capital accumulation for the peasantry was nearly unthinkable, [Godric] was nonetheless a model of modern wealth creation: an up-from-the-bootstraps capitalist who transformed the hand fate had dealt him."

"Cosimo helped to create a world that revolved not around God but around a society with man at the center. After five hundred years, power was shifting from the men of the Church to the men of business."

"Gifted with unprecedented mineral wealth, [Philip} had set out to reverse the flow of history rather than look forward and embrace growth, and history has judged him accordingly."

"James Watt is known to us as the father of the Industrial Revolution, and indeed the steam engine he brought to such perfection is the [italics] defining invention of the movement....He needed a partner [Boulton] to transform his genius into a product and to bring the product to a market where fortunes were waiting to be made....The steam engine [developed by Watt and promoted by Boulton] that would power the first locomotive would radically alter transportation across England and throughout Europe. Across the ocean, it would even pull a continent together. But its invention and manufacture would be left to other minds and hands."

"Throughout the last millennium, it was control that created fortunes: control over the oceans or railroads, the highways or the airwaves. At the start of the new millennium, it's still control -- this time over cyberspace, the new wealth machine. Some things never change but here's the difference: This road to riches is open to everyone."

I include these brief excerpts to suggest both the style and thrust of Means's presentation of material. As Grubin correctly points out in the Foreword, "Scientists and politicians, artists and scholars, all contributed to the millennium of change, but the world's businessmen -- its bankers and industrialists, merchants and entrepreneurs -- were a powerful driving force behind the stunning transformation." Means is to be commended for so skillfully guiding his reader through this immensely interesting process. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Mokyr's The Lever of Riches.


Big Themes of 900 Years of Business in Twelve Stories   March 18, 2001
Professor Donald Mitchell (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 97,000 Helpful Votes Globally)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

Who says that history has to be dull? Money & Power is a lively introductory look at how modern business developed. You could graduate in economics from the finest colleges in North America, and never get this information. Anyone who wants to have a basic understanding of some key elements and tensions in business operations should read this book.

Unlike many books related to television specials, this one has been turned into a book rather than simply being a copy of the television script. Money & Power does not require you to have seen the special to benefit from its very interesting contents.

The book is organized around 12 chapters that each highlight one person or event in business history. The beginning of the chapter provides linkage material to put the information into context and to relate it to what preceded the chapter.

The first problem that business people faced in Christian Europe was that profit-making (especially earning interest on money) was considered sinful. The book takes a look at how that belief evolved through first considering an early peddler-merchant, St. Godric, who eventually gave up his entrepreneurially bookstrapped career to become a hermit, and was eventually sainted. By the Renaissance, the consummate banker Cosima de' Medici was able to handle this differently. Through a large donation he obtained absolution for his sins in operating a business.

The importance of trust is also developed. From the de' Medici's to J.P. Morgan, banking relied on prudent, dependable people whom you could trust. During financial panics in the late 19th century and early 20th century, J.P. Morgan was the lender of last resort who bailed out the markets. After Morgan, the Federal Reserve system was created to fulfill this critical economic role.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, greed can be destructive. The book describes the manias in Holland with tulip bulbs and the parallel bubble in England, as well as the wasteful use of wealth by Phillip II of Spain (he of the ill-fated Spanish Armada).

The role of business person, as separate from inventor, is nicely developed in the story of how James Watt and Matthew Boulton collaborated to commercially exploit the steam engine. That theme is continued in examining Henry Ford's work in creating his own infrastructure and marketplace for the mass-produced auto.

The role of financiers and speculators is nicely developed in a section on the U.S. transcontinental railroad (the 1860s version of the Internet today).

A chapter on Robert Woodruff of Coca-Cola explains the power of modern brands and marketing.

A chapter on Time Warner develops the ways that new combinations of capabilities can allow new developments to occur (think of Time as "conduit" and Warner as "content"). This continued the theme of creating a favorable industry structure that was begun in the chapter on John D. Rockefeller's creation of the Standard Oil trust.

A final chapter on Bill Gates and Microsoft heralds the current age, in which "the road to riches is open to everyone."

Many books that operate at a "simple" level are also simplistic. This is not the case with Money & Power. Great precision is used that provides relevant distinctions that are valuable to those with more knowledge. For example, the book points out that St. Godric was the son of a freeman. This is an important point, because the son of a serf could not legally have wandered off to become a peddler. Very few people were freemen in the late 11th century. His experience is much more understandable for having that information included.

I thought that the 12 examples were especially well chosen to make anyone who reads the book more business literate. If the book could have been expanded to 15 examples, it would have been nice to capture some of the great work in establishing new concepts for corporations that has occurred in the last 30 years.

After you read this book, I also suggest that you think about what the conceptual hurdles are today that limit the effectiveness of businesses to provide for society's needs. How can those limitations be removed in the future in ways that are beneficial to everyone?

Understand the almost universal appeal of money and power, and how it can be made more productive!


FASCINATING AND MIND-GRABBING!   March 22, 2001
Sandra D. Peters (Prince Edward Island, Canada)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

The book presents an inside view of the history of business and its development over the years. From the 12th century monk, St. Godric to Bill Gates and Microsoft, this well-researched book outlines the history of industry, commerce and power. As a counsellor and teacher of business management, I will highly recommend this literary masterpiece to my students. Before we can advance in industry and commerce, it is equally important to understand the roots...where and how it all began. Who wouldn't be captivated by the Rothschilds or Robert Woodruff and Coca-Cola? My only regret is that the book ended all too soon. There are other mega empires that are not mentioned here - maybe there will be a sequel to this book in the future.


An interesting way to write business history   July 27, 2001
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I was never able to see the CNBC program to which this book is the companion, although i would be greatly ineterested in watching it now.

The author, rather than outlining a boring, start to finish business history book used an inventive means of describing multiple stories of individuals and large scale events. He was not afraid to use poeple who are not well known nor scared to paint a different picture of the well known.

The book covered the transitions between era's in a compelling way by shifting the focus on the newest trend in every era. While this ranged from money lending in the time of Medici to trading during Tulipmania to Creating and building during the industrial revolution, the reader can understand the era with the historical backdrop as well understand the trends in business evolution through the personal stories. The author is also not afraid to write positive and negative comments about various historical figures. He does not show a positive bias like many historians.

I felt this book presented the most intersting business history of any book I have read. It is also able to be read chapter by chapter individually becaus ethe chapters, although they refer to past events in some, are mostly separate stories.

if you are interested in business history, this should be the first book you pick up. I guarantee you will have a different perspective on many individuals and learn a great deal about some you have never heard of.


Great historical overview of business   March 2, 2001
9 out of 12 found this review helpful

I am a recent MBA just starting my career-- I received this book from my father as a gift last week and read the whole thing in a weekend. It is a great historical look at how business began and how it has evolved through time. I had no idea that money led to such notions of guilt as it did in medievel/feudal times. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in history and business.