Belief's and business - Faith in action

Beliefs and Business
by Hearts and Minds Media
We have seen that at various times in the past, there was a clear social expectation
on business people to do good with their money through personal philanthropy. In
certain industries this took on the nature of a race, with those who competed against
each other in the commercial arena also trying to outdo each other when it came to
their charitable deeds. The brewing industry was one such example. In the 19th
century, almost all of the figures behind the biggest beer brands of the time were
significant donors. This was almost certainly in part a response to the ongoing
criticism of their brewing activities by the vocal temperance movement. For instance,
it is noted of the Liverpool brewer and philanthropist Andrew Barclay Walker (who
gifted to the city the art gallery bearing his name)that ‘his business interests in
the brewing trade made him a controversial political figure in a city riven by sectarian
and religious differences’, and that ‘many saw Walker’s philanthropy as a crude
attempt to establish his own cultural status in the town and to curry favour with
metropolitan artistic elites’.349 Critics saw his support for the arts (which admittedly
came somewhat out of nowhere) as
nothing more that an attempt to ‘buy a knighthood through showy displays of
philanthropy’. Whatever the motivation behind their donations however, and
notwithstanding such criticisms, it was clear that ‘. . . brewers were expected to be
involved with the community and to be charitable’. In fact, so ubiquitous was
charitable giving among the major figures in brewing (dubbed ‘the Beerage’ ), that a
failure to give was reason for raised eyebrows. Fred King, of the still-famous Greene,
King and Sons, for instance, ‘may be the only brewer of whom it never seems to have
been claimed that he made the world a better place by some means other than his
beer’.
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