Abstract
The source of 200 of the greatest fortunes in Great Britain in 1988 is examined using data published in Money magazine. The 200 fortunes originated in 74 different industries, the most common being land-holding (n=33) and real estate trading and development (n=15). Sixty-two of the industries were judged to be competitive at the time the fortunes orginated, 12 non-competitive. Three-quarters of the fortunes originated in what were essentially competitive industries. Possible explanations include infra-marginal rents due to business acumen or ownership of scarce essential resources, short-run disequilibrium profits, the returns to innovation, luck (or observations of the very fortunate investors who played the business uncertainty lottery), or classification errors. In any case, we learn that monopoly is not the exclusive (or even most common) source of vast fortunes in Great Britain.
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