shopocracyn.
/ʃɒˈpɒkrəsi/, U.S. /ʃɑˈpɑkrəsi/ Now historical and rare.
Shopkeepers as a class aspiring to social importance; a wealthy or influential body of shopkeepers.
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society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > [noun] > shopkeeper or tradesman > collectively
business class1824
shopocracy1831
1831 Morning Post 12 Nov. 3 The Public Meeting which had so much grieved and mortified the Reforming Baronet and the shopocracy.
1832 Poor Man's Guardian 9 June 419 ‘The Shopocracy’ in the neighbourhood..were somewhat alarmed.
1881 C. S. Parnell in Philadelphia Rec. No. 3357. 1 Appealing to the great masses of England and Scotland against the territorialism and shopocracy which dominates Parliament.
1902 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 64 The advent of the money power and the reign of the shopocracy, has been justified by the event.
1970 H. Slochower Mythopoesis App. 340 At a time when the German ‘shopocracy’ was a passive, obedient tool of the German state.
2006 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 11 May 20/3 Changes in the franchise reduced the power of the ‘shopocracy’, the small rate payers who had opposed improvement.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1831