THE MENTAL ABILITY OF THE QUAKERS 657 



natural selection in virtue of which those who remained in the community 

 were those who could best tolerate the formalism and peculiar habits incul- 

 cated by their creed. A further reason for believing that the success of 

 Quakers in business was not due to insincere adherents is the fact that their 

 business ability was shown from the first and at a time when they were being 

 subjected to severe persecution. 



After this brief review of the history of the Quakers we may proceed to 

 consider what success they had in business. 



In the first place it must be recognised that their honesty did give them 

 an advantage in trading. Until the time of the Quakers, anyone going into 

 a shop in England had to haggle and bargain about the price or stand the risk 

 of being cheated. The Quakers held it dishonest to ask one price and to accept 

 another. Hence they introduced fixed prices, a custom that gave them a 

 substantial advantage, early in the history of the movement. George Fox, 

 referring to the confidence in Quaker tradesmen thus produced, says in his 

 journal, " and yt last they might send any childe and bee as well used as 

 ymselves att any of there shoppes." 



But honest men have failed in business before now. Other qualities 

 besides honesty are wanted in commercial affairs. Quakers soon showed 

 their ability in other forms of business than retail trading. Wherever the 

 history of Quaker famiUes is sufficiently known it appears that the power 

 of making money often did appear, and that it only appeared at the time 

 of or shortly after their conversion. It will be of interest to quote some 

 examples. 



A well-known Quaker family is that of the Gurneys. They are descended 

 from Hugh de Gournay, who came over to England with William the Con- 

 queror. Manors and lands were given to the family in Norfolk and Suffolk. 

 They owned a vast territory in Normandy, which was lost to them in 1204. A 

 descendant, Anthony Gurnay, married an heiress in the reign of Henry VIII. 

 His estate was much diminished in his life-time by the sale of several manors. 

 Henry Gurney, of West Narsham, who died in 1623, in his will bequeathed 

 the reversion of ;^2oo to his younger sons " so that none hould any fantas- 

 tical or erronious opinions as adjudged by our Bishop or civill lawes." The 

 beginning of interest in religious matters was not accompanied by any success 

 in business, as it is recorded that the later generations of the family at West 

 Barsham were in straitened circumstances. One of the sons of Henry Gurnay 

 was a clergyman. Another, Francis, was a merchant who became bankrupt. 

 The grandson of Francis, John Gurnay (later spelt Gurney), born in 1655, 

 became a Quaker and was the founder of the wealth of the Gurney family. 

 He was a silk merchant in Norwich. A descendant of his, Hudson Gurney, 

 F.R.S., wrote in his diary in 1850 : 



" John Gurney, 1670, was a thriving merchant of Norwich, worth ;^2o,ooo, 

 " John Gurney, his grandson, died 1770, worth ;£ioo, 000, 

 " and I, the grandson of the last, wind up 1850, worth ;^8oo,ooo." 

 The banking firm of John and Henry Gurney & Co. was founded in 1775. 

 In 1838 this bank was described as of a power inferior to no banking establish- 

 ment in Great Britain, that of the Bank of England alone excepted. It is of 

 interest to notice that Hudson Gurney was disowned by the Friends for send- 

 ing a subscription to a fund for volunteers in 1804. 



Lest it should be thought that a Quaker becoming a banker was an excep- 

 tional case, it may be stated here that the number of English country banks 

 founded by Quakers was far out of proportion to the numbers of this small 

 community. English banking originated from some Italian merchants whose 

 business it was to transmit to Italy the revenues drawn from England by the 

 Pope. Lombard Street in London was named after them in 13 18, but banking 

 properly so-called only began to develop there about the year 1685. But it is 

 mainly to the Quakers that belongs the credit of having founded a system 



