In A Christmas Carol, what business did Scrooge and Marley run?

In the third paragraph of stave one, "Marley's Ghost," of Charles Dickens's novella A Christmas Carol, the reader learns that Ebenezer Scrooge "was an excellent man of business." The questions is, of course, what business?

Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. (Stave I)

"'Change" refers to the Royal Exchange, which was the financial center of London during Dickens's time, where merchants, brokers, commodities dealers, and insurers met to make financial arrangements and agreements. Despite the fact that Scrooge was disliked as a person, he had a good financial reputation. This doesn't tell the reader what Scrooge did, only that he was good at it, whatever it was.

Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. (stave I)

Dickens mentions two different warehouses in A Christmas Carol. The first is the warehouse outside which the "Scrooge and Marley" sign hangs, and the second is the warehouse where Scrooge was apprenticed to Mr. Fezziwig, which Scrooge visits with the Ghost of Christmas Past in stave II, "The First of Three Spirits."

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "warehouse" can mean a large building in which "wares" of different kinds are "housed," which is what Fezziwig's warehouse appears to be. Dickens describes Fezziwig's warehouse as large enough to accommodate a party for all of the warehouse workers and others in the neighborhood and their energetic dancing—"twenty couples at once" (stave II).

"Warehouse" can also mean a simple shop or storefront establishment, such as Scrooge's warehouse appears to be. Dickens describes Scrooge's warehouse as no more than two small rooms—Scrooge's office and "the Tank" in which a freezing Bob Cratchit labors, "copying letters"—although there might well be other rooms which Dickens doesn't mention.

Once upon a time—of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve—old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. (Stave I)

During Victorian times, a counting-house could be a bookkeeping or accounting office or department of a larger merchant business, possibly with its own rooms in a large building, or a storefront, such as Scrooge's seems to be. All of these references provide the environment in which Scrooge conducts his business, but none of them describes his actual business.

Scrooge is a miser, loner, and recluse, but he doesn't sequester himself in his counting-house unceasingly counting his money, which is the common perception of him. Scrooge regularly conducts business outside his office, which is revealed in stave IV.

Scrooge meets with merchants at the Royal Exchange, for example, where he has an "accustomed corner" where he can be found at a certain time of the day. Scrooge has also spent some time cultivating a financial relationship with two wealthy "men of business." It's possible that Scrooge manages the financial accounts of these merchants and businessmen, or perhaps he even has partnerships arrangements of some kind with them. In other words, Scrooge's business interests might be diversified.

The most specific reference to Scrooge's "business" is also found in stave IV. A man returns home to his wife, Caroline, and their children, with news that a person to whom they own money—presumably Ebenezer Scrooge, judging from the overall content of this Stave—has died. Caroline and her husband are happy to hear about Scrooge's death, and thankful to be rid of "so merciless a creditor."

In addition to whatever other business or businesses with which Scrooge is involved—the details about which he apparently shares with no one, not even Charles Dickens—he's a despised money-lender with a reputation for merciless foreclosures which ruin people's lives, and who wouldn't hesitate to invoke the Poor Laws and send debtors to debtors' prison, to the treadmills, or to the workhouses, the establishments which, as Scrooge says in stave I, "I help to support."

Scrooge and Marley own a counting-house. Today, this is a business function that would be carried out by book-keepers and accountants. Yet there are also references in the story to warehouses, implying that Scrooge and Marley are involved in some kind of wholesale business. In Victorian England there were many businesses that took on the role of middlemen, so firms like Scrooge & Marley's often carried out a number of related functions that would nowadays be done by specialist firms.

The firm's money-lending role may be a formal one, or could it simply be a sideline to its main business. Scrooge and Marley are incredibly rich and successful men, operating a thriving business in a poor part of town. They would, then, have counted on a regular stream of customers beating a path to their door in order to borrow money. This would've enabled them, in turn, to lend money at extortionate rates of interest, making them incredibly rich while their clients remained poor.

Whatever the precise nature of Scrooge and Marley's business, there can be little doubt that it takes more out of the local community than it puts back. It doesn't really create anything; it simply makes money out of money. Such unproductive business, and the greed it generates, make it a prime symbol of the soullessness and rampant exploitation of unrestrained Victorian capitalism.

What was the business of Scrooge and Marley?

Ebenezer Scrooge is the primary character of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Jacob Marley was his business partner for many years; Scrooge was the executor of Marley's estate, and Marley appears in the book as the first ghost Scrooge sees. Scrooge is described as Marley's "sole friend," so it can be assumed that Marley was not unlike Scrooge in terms of the relationship he had with the world.

The nature of Scrooge and Marley's business is actually fairly obscure in the context of the text--it isn't described how many employees the business has, nor its particular function. We do see Scrooge busy "in his counting-house." However, the names "Scrooge and Marley" are painted "above the warehouse door." So, the business presumably involves some kind of production floor, with the produce being shipped out of a warehouse, and also an administrative or office element, which is where Scrooge and Bob Cratchit work. However, Dickens isn't any more specific than this.