It’s a testimony to the creative power of the imagination that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has become a huge box-office success. That power is skilfully reflected in the faces of the five children who visit the factory, and in the enchanting tour of the factory led by its effusive though loopy proprietor, Willy Wonka. The result is a tantalising moral fable that should appeal, on different levels, to all the family.

But the creative power of the imagination can also be seen, no less inspirationally, in the life and work of a true-life chocolate magnate – George Cadbury. Not only through his impressive philanthropy but, crucially, in and through his business activities, Cadbury achieved more in terms of social reform, the amelioration of poverty and spiritual renewal than many political and religious leaders of his day.

As a Quaker, George determined, when he took over the family business with his brother in 1861, that he would pursue business neither as an end in itself nor as a route to individual riches but as a means of serving humanity and extending God’s kingdom.

Business has the same potential today – even when it comes to chocolate. While many cocoa producers struggle in a global market dominated by only three companies – Cadbury, Nestle and Mars – the recent sale of the company Green & Black (some of whose chocolate is fairly traded) to Cadbury increases the likelihood that sales of fairly traded chocolate will continue their rapid rise at our supermarket checkouts.

Another hopeful sign is the emergence of a new form of ethical commerce known as ‘Equitrade’. Whereas Fairtrade provides help to a relatively small (though growing) number of farmers, Equitrade tries to raise the quality of life for the majority of poor people by carrying out the processing operations, where most of the profits are made, in the poor countries themselves.

Malagasy Foods, for example, has recently started harvesting and processing chocolate in Madagascar. It thereby ensures that 40 per cent of its income stays in Madagascar, with an extra 11 per cent benefiting the country through tax.

Equitrade’s rationale for processing chocolate in developing countries echoes some of George Cadbury’s reasons for carrying out his company’s processing operations on the edge of socially deprived Birmingham. The result, then, was transformation on an unprecedented scale. The same could happen today – if only we’re prepared to release the creative power of our imaginations.

Peter Heslam

Peter Heslam heads up Transforming Business, a new research and development project at Cambridge University that is developing a theology of transformative business. See www.licc.org.uk/capitalism.

additional resources

For a detailed, though dated and somewhat racy, biography of George Cadbury, see A Life of George Cadbury by AG Gardiner (Cassell, 1923)

A more up-to-date and scholarly assessment of Quaker enterprise, including Cadbury, can be found in The Quakers: Money and Morals by James Walvin (John Murray, 1997).

Younger readers (5-7 year olds) will prefer a short new illustrated biography entitled The Life of George Cadbury by Leonie Bennett (Heineman Library, 2005). See www.heinemann.co.uk.

All ages can enjoy a fun day out at Cadbury World, an educational multimedia 'chocolate paradise' dedicated to the story of Cadbury and chocolate - see www.cadburyworld.co.uk. The exhibition includes a display on George's life and work.

For more detail on the distinction between Fairtrade and Equitrade, see the following Guardian article by John Vidal - at www.guardian.co.uk

Malagasy Foods claims on its website: 'We will not sell cash crops from Madagascar at pence per kilogram, so that other companies can sell them at pounds per kilogram in international markets. We do not think this is equitable.' See www.malagasy.co.uk.

A well-researched position paper on the role of business in poverty relief is 'Enterprise Solutions to Poverty: Opportunities and Challenges for the International Development Community and Big Business' - at www.shellfoundation.org.

For a recent appraisal of 'philanthropic enterprise' (sometimes called 'social entrepreneurship'), see the June edition of Economic Affairs entitled Philanthropic Enterprise - at www.iea.org.uk.

For an actual project that examines the hard evidence of enterprise-based solutions to poverty, see www.mercatus.org/enterpriseafrica.

A book that everyone with an interest in private-sector solutions to global poverty is talking about is CK Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits (Wharton 2005). Commended by Bill Gates and Madaleine Albright, it comes with a free CDR filmed on location. Visit www.whartonsp.com.

For two new sceptical appraisals of the potential of development aid in addressing poverty see Aid and Development: Will it Work This Time? by Fredrik Erixon - at www.policynetwork.net; and 'Aid Must Help People, Not Governments' by Moeltsi Mbeki (Deputy Chair of the South African Institute of International Affairs and brother to South Africa's President), published in the New Statesman, 4th July 2005 - at www.newstatesman.com.

A balanced ecumenical assessment of the opportunities and responsibilities of wealthy countries can be found in Prosperity with a Purpose: Christians and the Ethics of Affluence, published by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, who contracted the well-known commentator Clifford Longley to do most of the writing.

Transformational Business Network is a group of Christians in business seeking to tackle poverty through enterprise. See www.tbnetwork.org.

The US recently screened a TV series on social entrepreneurship called New Heroes. Hosted by film star Robert Redford, it tracked the inspiring stories of fourteen social entrepreneurs who are successfully tackling poverty and disease in various parts of the world. You can read their stories on the series' website, where you can also do games and activities to help you discover what social entrepreneurship is all about. Be a hero - at www.pbs.org.

MakePovertyHistory is at www.makepovertyhistory.org.

To find local show times of the film (based on your postcode) go to www.amazon.com.

For reviews of the film by Christian writers, see www.christiananswers.net; Third Way, Vol 28, No 7 (September 2005), p 29. Once films appear on DVD, Bible Society's 'Reel Issues' subscription service provides resources to help discussion of selected films in a group context. For information see www.biblesociety.org.uk

For various editions of Ronald Dahl’s classic tale Charlie and the Chocolate Factory see www.amazon.co.uk.

The official website of the film is chocolatefactorymovie.warnerbros.com.

A growing Fairtrade chocolate brand is Divine, which has a range of products. Its aim is to ‘eat poverty history’. See www.divinechocolate.com.

To find out more about Fairtrade, such as how products qualify to bear the Fairtrade label, visit the Fairtrade Foundation at www.fairtrade.org.uk.