The Captain of Industry

“The Leaders of Industry, if Industry is ever to be led, are virtually the Captains of the World; if there be no nobleness in them, there will never be an Aristocracy more…Captains of Industry are the true Fighters, henceforth recognizable as the only true ones: Fighters against Chaos, Necessity and the Devils and Jotuns, and lead on Mankind in that great, and alone true, and universal warfare; the stars in their courses fighting for them, and all Heaven and all Earth saying audibly, Well Done!”

(Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present)

 In 1843 there were reputedly one and a half million unemployed in England out of a population of 18 million. The closing of factories and the reduction of wages led to severe rioting in the manufacturing districts. Bread-hungry protesters caused many observers to dread that a large-scale revolution was imminent. Carlyle was so appalled by the plight of the industrial workers that he postponed his research into the life and times of Cromwell to air out his views on the contemporary crisis.

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Past and Present, a book written in seven weeks, was a call for Heroic Leadership. Carlyle hoped that the “Captains of Industry” might provide a comparable leadership necessary for the times. (Norton Anthology).

Descriptions of a Captain:

“Love of men cannot be bought by cash-payment; and without love, men cannot endure together”

Working Aristocracy

Treat all workers with respect and dignity

Use their strength and wisdom to compel work

Foster work, not animosity

“Noble Loyalty in return for noble guidance”

Needed to reduce the working class to order, to just subordination because it is only “as a firm regimented mass, with real captains over them, will these men march.”