How a Fishmonger Bankrupted the British Aristocracy
Crockford's Club in 1828.
How
about a bit of history today? Everyone loves a good rags-to-riches
story, and and the tale of Crockford's Club is a great one: a man who
sold fish for a living smelled an opportunity to garner a little bit of
the British aristocracy's surplus wealth. And he knew just how to do it.
Take
William Crockford, who began his career as a London fishmonger and
ended it, half a century later, as perhaps the wealthiest self-made man
in England. Crockford managed this feat thanks to one extraordinary
talent—an unmatched skill for gambling—and one simple piece of good
fortune: to be alive early in the 19th century, when peace had returned
to Europe after four decades of war and a generation of bored young
aristocrats, who a few years earlier would have been gainfully employed
in fighting Napoleon, found themselves with far too much time on their hands.
That's
right. Crockford managed to woo money right from their hands simply
because they were bored and rich. Check out the full history at
Past Imperfect.
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