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SUMMARY:The anatomy of Britain’s inter-war super-rich: reconstructing th
 e 1928 'millionaire' population - Professor Peter Scott\, Henley Business 
 School\, University of Reading
DTSTART:20200203T170000Z
DTEND:20200203T183000Z
UID:TALK136417@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Duncan Needham
DESCRIPTION:W.D. Rubinstein’s path-breaking study of wealthy elites in B
 ritain during the nineteenth and early twentieth century found that a larg
 er proportion of their fortunes were based on commerce and finance rather 
 than industry\; that London was the centre of wealth-making in Britain\; a
 nd that British industrial wealth was\, in general\, subordinated to comme
 rcial and financial wealth. These findings were based on probate data for 
 deceased persons\, which are problematic for measuring peak wealth – as 
 they record the assets of\, typically\, elderly people\, who may already h
 ave spent or distributed a good part of their fortunes. Moreover\, for a g
 iven year of death they show fortunes made at varying dates\, mainly sever
 al decades previously. \n\nWe re-examine Rubinstein’s hypotheses for a l
 arge sample of living millionaires during the 1928/29 tax year\, using a d
 ataset based on a list of all millionaire incomes compiled by the Inland R
 evenue. We also draw on other archival data on the sources of millionaire 
 incomes. The inter-war era is particularly important\, as it constituted a
  transition period from elites dominated by inherited landed wealth (espec
 ially at the very top of the wealth pyramid) to a more mixed picture\, whe
 re businessmen were both strongly represented among Britain’s millionair
 es and\, in a few cases\, had fortunes that eclipsed those of its wealthie
 st aristocrats.\nWe first provide a profile of millionaire incomes\, inclu
 ding changes in the number of millionaires over time\; the distribution of
  millionaires by income\; aggregate millionaire portfolios\; and a classif
 ication of the millionaires by main source of income. This is followed by 
 a methodological discussion of our reconstruction of those people included
  in the 1928/9 millionaire list (the majority of whom were not originally 
 recorded by name)\, including names\, locations\, and the main sectors in 
 which their fortunes were made. The dataset is then used (in conjunction w
 ith other information\, drawn from a broad range of biographical and other
  sources)\, to analyse the geographical and sectoral distribution of milli
 onaire incomes in 1928. \nOur findings indicate that the British millionai
 re class was indeed dominated by people who had made their fortunes from t
 he service sector\, together with the traditional landed elite\, both of w
 hich were geographically clustered in London and the South East. However\,
  this largely reflects the clustering of millionaire fortunes in a relativ
 ely narrow range of economic activities\, which are not representative of 
 the distribution of British economic activity\, or even large firms – bu
 t instead represent sectors with super-normal profits owing to strong barr
 iers to entry and competition. Thus Britain’s inter-war millionaire popu
 lation was more representative of personal wealth-making than national wea
 lth-making. In this respect typical inter-war business millionaires had st
 rong commonalities with earlier\, landed\, British elites\, in that they s
 ustained their wealth through creating\, and then perpetuating\, scarcity 
 in the markets for the goods and services they controlled.\n
LOCATION:Darwin College\, Old Library
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