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philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation.'
If the quintessence of the bourgeoisie's conduct is 'naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation', then it follows that its words and utterances do not deserve serious attention. But I think this quintessence should not be simply assumed. Whether businessmen are more liable to distort ‘reality' so as to camouflage their self-interests than politicians or intellectuals is an empirical question to be verified. Advances in the sociological study of ideologies, mainly in the political realm, have led to the realization that the relationship between attitude and behaviour is highly complex. Idea and action are seldom completely divorced; neither are they simply translated from one to the other. There is now general agreement that attitudes entail behavioural consequences, and that an ideology can serve diverse functions. 'It is at once a method of self-reassurance, an instrument of persuasion, and a legitimacy of authority'. (Fox 1966: 372) Therefore, on a macroscopic level, business ideology 'may be considered a symptom of changing class relations and hence as a clue to an understanding of industrial societies'. (Bendix 1959: 615) On a microscopic level, a close scrutiny of this kind of ideology may yield a fuller understanding of the social role of industrialists.
In 1978, fieldwork was carried out among the Chinese entrepreneurs in the cotton spinning industry of Hong Kong. The theoretical problem guiding the research was the connection between industrial behaviour and ethnicity, and the business ideology of these industrialists was one of the areas under investigation. Hong Kong's cotton spinning industry had several important characteristics. Firstly, it was virtually a Shanghainese enclave. Thirty-two mills were in operation at the time of the study, and twenty-five of them had over half of the stock held by one or more owners who originated from the Lower Yangtze region of China. Secondly, all of the cotton spinning mills were at the apex of Hong Kong's industrial structure in terms of size. The biggest mill employed over 2,000 workers with a capacity of about 94,000 spindles in 1978. On average each mill had approximately 500 workers and 25,000 spindles. For Hong Kong's industry as a whole, over 90% of the factories employed less than
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philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation.'
If the quintessence of the bourgeoisie's conduct is 'naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation', then it follows that its words and utterances do not deserve serious attention. But I think this quintessence should not be simply assumed. Whether businessmen are more liable to distort ‘reality' so as to camouflage their self-interests than politicians or intellectuals is an empirical question to be verified. Advances in the sociological study of ideologies, mainly in the political realm, have led to the realization that the relationship between attitude and behaviour is highly complex. Idea and action are seldom completely divorced; neither are they simply translated from one to the other. There is now general agreement that attitudes entail behavioural consequences, and that an ideology can serve diverse functions. 'It is at once a method of self-reassurance, an instrument of persuasion, and a legitimacy of authority'. (Fox 1966: 372) Therefore, on a macroscopic level, business ideology 'may be considered a symptom of changing class relations and hence as a clue to an understanding of industrial societies'. (Bendix 1959; 615) On a microscopic level, a close scrutiny of this kind of ideology may yield a fuller understanding of the social role of industrialists.
In 1978, fieldwork was carried out among the Chinese entrepreneurs in the cotton spinning industry of Hong Kong. The theoretical problem guiding the research was the connection between industrial behaviour and ethnicity, and the business ideology of these industrialists was one of the areas under investigation. Hong Kong's cotton spinning industry had several important characteristics. Firstly, it was virtually a Shanghainese enclave. Thirty-two mills were in operation at the time of the study, and twenty-five of them had over half of the stock held by one or more owners who originated from the Lower Yangtze region of China. Secondly, all of the cotton spinning mills were at the apex of Hong Kong's industrial structure in terms of size. The biggest mill employed over 2,000 workers with a capacity of about 94,000 spindles in 1978. On average each mill had approximately 500 workers and 25,000 spindles. For Hong Kong's industry as a whole, over 90% of the factories employed less than
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