These are the inspiring stories of 10 great British entrepreneurs from the Elizabethan age to the present, and how their genius made Britain great and shaped the global marketplace. Britain’s rise to global dominance from the 16th century owed as much to the vision and creativity of traders, industrialists, and bankers as it did to wars of conquest fought by the military. This book tells the story of British business endeavor through the lives of 10 titans of commerce. Beginning with the Tudor merchants who transformed England’s economy via trade with the New World, Liam Byrne traces an entrepreneurial golden line through men such as Thomas Pitt, savior of the East India Company; financier Nathan Rothschild, creator of the modern bond market; and William Lever, of the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership. At the start of the 21st century Britain remains a major economic power. This is both a rousing celebration of British business genius and a fascinating informative narrative of a neglected but essential strand of British history.