Of Poetry and Politics: The Managerial Culture of Sixteenth-Century England

Abstract

Let us begin by recognizing that there was no management literature in the sixteenth century. There is not a single volume from the sixteenth century with a title like that of the “how-to” book entitled Elizabeth I CEO14 Strategic Lessons from the Leader Who Built an Empire, in which Allan Axelrod held up Elizabeth as a role model for “would-be builders of contemporary empires.”¹ As the Investor’s Business Daily proclaimed, “Whether you’re just beginning your corporate climb or you’ve reached the top and want to stay there, you can learn leadership from Queen Elizabeth I.”² To my knowledge, the only early modern book that has been reprinted as a management manual is Eustache de Refuge’s 1617 Treatise on the Court. According to its modern translator, “Eustache de Refuge wrote about how to achieve career success from the first day to the last, how to analyze organizational context, how to categorize and deal with power-brokers in organizations, what to do when ordered to do something wrong, how to neutralize opponents, and about sex in the workplace.”³