Abstract
This chapter explores the politics of business and the business of politics, from the late twentieth century to the late eighteenth century. It also examines the question of livelihoods and the question of lives. It focuses on the naval mutinies that occurred within weeks of each other in England in 1797, one at Spithead off Portsmouth and one at the Nore off Sheerness. The conventional accounts of these mutinies suggest that leadership played a critical role in the success of the former and the failure of the latter and the analysis developed here agrees with the conclusion but not with the apportioning of responsibility for the outcome to the various leaders involved.