[f. Gr. κάπηλος shop-keeper + -κπατία rule.] The shopkeeping ‘interest’ or class.
1841. Lytton, Nt. & Morn. (1851), 236. A milliner’s house (shop, to outward appearance, it was not), evincing … its degree above the Capelocracy, to use a certain classical neologism, by a brass plate. Ibid. (1853), My Novel (Hoppe). The triumph of the capelocracy.
