shopocracy
(ʃɒˈpɒkrəsɪ)
[f. shop n.: see -cracy.]
Shopkeepers as a class aspiring to social importance; a wealthy or influential body of shopkeepers. So shopocrat (ˈʃɒpəkræt) [-crat], a member of the shopocracy; also attrib.
| 1832 Poor Man's Guardian 9 June 419 ‘The Shopocracy’ in the neighbourhood..were somewhat alarmed. Ibid. 29 Dec. 658/2 A shopocrat Parliament. 1841 Blackw. Mag. L. 63 We have left behind the regions of the great merchants, and of the shopocrats. 1881 [see territorialism 1]. |