Fezziwig

Origin
Mr. Fezziwig is a character from the novella A Christmas Carol created by Charles Dickens to provide contrast with Ebenezer Scrooge's attitudes towards business ethics. Fezziwig, who apprenticed Scrooge is everything that Scrooge is not and is portrayed as a happy, foppish man with a large Welsh wig. In stage 2 of A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to revisit his youthful days in Fezziwig's world located at the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. Dickens used Fezziwig to represent a set of communal values and a way of life which was quickly being swept away in the economic turmoil of the early nineteenth century.

Scrooge is reminded how his own values have diverged greatly from those of someone he once admired. Fezziwig is also a capitalist, but he moderates profit maximization with kindness, generosity, and affection for his employees. Fezziwig cannot go too far in ignoring profitability – if his products cost too much he will be out competed. If his margins are too low, he will be unable to secure loans to continue operations. In the early 19th century, such small owner-controlled traders were being swept up.

In the end, Jorkin hires away Scrooge and buys out Fezziwig's business, moving it from private to shareholder ownership. As agent of shareholder interests, Jorkin and his managers, Scrooge and Marley, are constrained from diverging from the goals of profitability, making it more difficult to be a Fezziwig even if they were inclined to. Fezziwig's successor, Jorkin, demonstrates the weakness of self-interest when he announces to the Board of directors that the company is insolvent after years of embezzling. Scrooge and Marley demonstrate their cunning self-interest by using the crisis to attain controlling interest in the company.

Public Domain Appearances
Literature:
 * A Chritmas Carol