The phrase ‘a nation of shopkeepers’ is commonly attributed to Napoleon about the English, but did he ever use it? Or perhaps it was Adam Smith in his magnum opus ‘The Wealth of Nations’? And is the phrase derogatory or complimentary? Whatever the case, shopkeepers in 19th century London had their ‘absurd extravagance’ regarding the size and quality of their windows regulated by the Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.
“The Corsican’s reproach, that we are “a nation of shopkeepers,” has a new illustration in the window of a fancy dealer’s shop in the Quadrant, Regent-street, Piccadilly. The window is one entire pane of thick glass, measuring eight feet by six. The value of it is said to be 200l. Should a person in passing accidentally break it, the law (according to a recent decision) will not oblige him to pay more that 3s. 6d. to the owner, the Chief Justice of the King’s Bench having declared that shopkeepers may not increase the common perils of society by absurd extravagance in the size and quality of their windows and shop decorations.”
Stamford Mercury, 25th May, 1827.