Spectacle Men and Tea Agents in London: The Conflict Between International Networks and Rising Nationalism at Turn of the Twentieth Century

At the turn of the twentieth century British companies were competing in an increasingly global market thanks to new infrastructures and technologies which allowed nearly instantaneous communication across the world. International networks were highly prevalent, as were complex investment entanglements involving stockholders from multiple countries. However, unfolding before these same transnational investors was a fierce nationalism eventually reflected in pro-domestic business sentiment at the outbreak of WWI. Through a study of one such company we can see the tension between two contradictory forces: patriotic domestic consumers and the global networks that were the backbones of many successful businesses. In this paper I will examine the international labyrinth that J. Lyons & Company, famous for its tea shops and corner houses in Britain, was a part of and how these connections may have been perceived as contradictory to national loyalty with the eventual outbreak of WWI.

A key moment of conflict for Lyons can be seen in 1914 when they sued Lipton for libel after Lipton employees advertised that Lyons was a German company doing business with the Germans after the outbreak of war and that the directors were German Jews. Lyons had built its empire using international social networks and business affiliations. From the original family tobacco business to the catering of grand spectacles such as Venice in London at Olympia, Lyons’ return on investment was enough to expand into tea shops, corner houses, and hotels that became symbolic of the cosmopolitan London experience, but specifically a very British one.