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Abstract

An arch over one of the exits from Greenwich Market in the east of London bears a signwhich reads “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his delight”.Erected in the nineteenth century, this quote from the Biblical Book of Proverbs (11:1) underlines the traditionally religious nature of most thinking regarding the proper conduct ofbusiness internationally. Greenwich is also the home of the Old Royal Naval College and theGreenwich Meridian – it was the military centre of the British Empire, the Pentagon of thenineteenth century. Greenwich is also the site of the parish where the Reverend Joseph F.Mees served as a vicar until his death during the outbreak of the Spanish flu at the end of theFirst World War. I would like to imagine that my great uncle had a hand in erecting the OldTestament quote over that exit to Greenwich Market, but it seems more likely that it is olderthan that. In 1849, an Act of Parliament gave the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital theright to set up and manage Greenwich Market and I suspect that the biblical warning againstfalsifying balances was erected then as merely one of the many acts of Victorian epigraphicpiety that still dot the British built environment today.

Item Type:	Book Section
Authors/Creators:	Mees, B
Keywords:	business ethics, history
Publisher:	Routledge
Copyright Information:	Copyright 2017 individual chapters, the contributors
Item Statistics:	View statistics for this item

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