BIRMINGHAM--MATTHEW BOULTON.
From an early period, Birmingham has been one of the principal centres
of mechanical industry in England. The neighbourhood abounds in coal
and iron, and has long been famous for the skill of its artisans. Swords
were forged there in the time of the Ancient Britons. The first guns made
in England bore the Birmingham mark. In 1538 Leland found “many smiths
in the town that use to make knives and all manner of cutting tools,
and many loriners that make bittes, and a great many nailers.” About a
century later Camden described the place as “full of inhabitants, and
resounding with hammers and anvils, for the most part of them smiths.”
As the skill of the Birmingham artisans increased, they gradually gave
up the commoner kinds of smithery, and devoted themselves to ornamental
metal-work, in brass, steel, and iron. They became celebrated for their
manufacture of buckles, buttons, and various fancy articles; and they
turned out such abundance of toys that towards the close of last century
Burke characterised Birmingham as “the great toy-shop of Europe.”
The ancient industry of Birmingham was of a staid and steady character,
in keeping with the age. Each manufacturer kept within the warmth of his
own forge. He did not go in search of orders, but waited for the orders to
come to him. Ironmongers brought their money in their saddle-bags, took
away the goods in exchange, or saw them packed ready for the next waggon
before they left. Notwithstanding this quiet way of doing business, many
comfortable fortunes were made in the place; the manufacturers, like their
buttons, moving off so soon as they had received the stamp and the gilt.
Hutton, the Birmingham bookseller, says he knew men who left the town in
chariots who had first approached it on foot. Hutton himself entered the
town a poor boy, and lived to write its history, and make a fortune by
his industry.
Until towards the end of last century the town was not very easy of
approach from any direction. The roads leading to it had become worn by
the traffic of many generations. The hoofs of the pack-horses, helped
by the rains, had deepened the tracks in the sandy soil, until in many
places they were twelve or fourteen feet deep, so that it was said of
travellers that they approached the town by sap. One of these old hollow
roads, still called Holloway-head, though now filled up, was so deep that
a waggon-load of hay might pass along it without being seen. There was
no direct communication between Birmingham and London until about the
middle of the century. Before then, the Great Road from London to Chester
passed it four miles off, and the Birmingham manufacturer, when sending
wares to London, had to forward his package to Castle Bromwich, there to
await the approach of the packhorse train or the stage-waggon journeying
south. The Birmingham men, however, began to wake up, and in 1747 a coach
was advertised to run to London in two days “if the roads permit.” Twenty
years later a stage-waggon was put on, and the communication by coach
became gradually improved.
When Hutton entered Birmingham in 1740, he was struck by the activity of
the place and the vivacity of the inhabitants, which expressed itself
in their looks as he passed them in the streets. “I had,” he says,
“been among dreamers, but now I saw men awake. Their very step showed
alacrity. Every man seemed to know and to prosecute his own affairs.”
The Birmingham men were indeed as alert as they looked--steady workers
and clever mechanics--men who struck hard on the anvil. The artisans of
the place had the advantage of a long training in mechanical skill. It
had been bred in their bone, and descended to them from their fathers as
an inheritance.[95] In no town in England were there then to be found so
many mechanics capable of executing entirely new work; nor, indeed, has
the ability yet departed from them, the Birmingham artisans maintaining
their individual superiority in intelligent execution of skilled work to
the present day. We are informed that inventors of new machines, foreign
as well as English, are still in the practice of resorting to them for
the purpose of getting their inventions embodied in the best forms, with
greater chances of success than in any other town in England.
[95] There seems reason to believe that the capacity for
skilled industry is to a certain extent transmissible; and
that the special aptitude for mechanics which characterises
the population of certain districts, is in a great measure
the result of centuries of experience, transmitted from one
generation to another. Mr. Morell takes the same view: “We
have every reason to believe,” he says, “that the power of
specialised instincts is transmitted, and when the circumstances
favour it, goes on increasing from age to age in intensity,
and in a particular adaptation to the purposes demanded. All
confirmed habits which become a part of the animal nature, seem
to be imparted by hereditary descent; and thus what _seems_ to
be an original instinct may, after all, be but the accumulated
growth and experience of many generations.”
About the middle of last century the two Boultons, father and son, were
recognised as among the most enterprising and prosperous of Birmingham
manufacturers. The father of the elder Matthew Boulton was John Boulton
of Northamptonshire, in which county Boultons or Boltons have been
settled for a long period, and where there are records of many clergymen
of the name. About the end of the seventeenth century, this John Boulton
settled at Lichfield, where he married Elizabeth, heir of Matthew Dyott of
Stitchbrooke, by whom he obtained considerable property. His means must,
however, have become reduced; in consequence of which his son Matthew was
sent to Birmingham to enter upon a career of business, and make his own
way in the world. He became established in the place as a silver stamper
and piecer, to which he added other branches of manufacture, which his
son Matthew afterwards largely extended.
Matthew Boulton the younger was born at Birmingham on the 3rd September,
1728. Little is known of his early life, beyond that he was a bright,
clever boy, and a general favourite with his companions. He received his
principal education at a private academy at Deritend, kept by the Rev. Mr.
Ansted, under whom he acquired the rudiments of a good ordinary English
education. Though he left school early for the purpose of following his
father’s business, he nevertheless continued the work of self-instruction,
and afterwards acquired considerable knowledge of Latin and French,
as well as of drawing and mathematics. But his chief pleasure was in
pursuing the study of chemistry and mechanics, in which, as we shall
shortly find, he became thoroughly accomplished. Long after he joined his
father in business, he delighted to revert to his classical favourites.
From an entry in his private memorandum-book of expenses at the age of
about thirty, though then very economical in other respects, we find him
expending considerable sums in experiments on electricity, and on one
occasion laying out a guinea on a copy of Virgil, from which it appears
that trade had not spoilt his taste for either science or letters.
Young Boulton appears to have engaged in business with much spirit. By the
time he was seventeen he had introduced several important improvements in
the manufacture of buttons, watch-chains, and other trinkets; and he had
invented the inlaid steel buckles which shortly after became the fashion.
These buckles were exported in large quantities to France, from whence
they were brought back to England and sold as the most recent productions
of French ingenuity. The elder Boulton, having every confidence in his
son’s discretion and judgment, adopted him as a partner so soon as he came
of age, and from that time forward he took almost the entire management of
the concern. Although in his letters he signed “for father and self,” he
always spoke in the first person of matters connected with the business.
Thus, in 1757, we find him writing to Timothy Holles, London, as to the
prices of “coat-link and vest buttons,” intimating that to lower them
would be to beat down price and quality until it became no business at
all; “yet,” said he, “as I have put myself to greater expense than anybody
else in erecting the best conveniences and the completest tools for the
purpose, I am not willing that any interlopers should run away with it.”
We find him at the same time carrying on a correspondence with Benjamin
Huntsman, of Sheffield, the celebrated inventor of cast-steel.[96] On
the 19th January, 1757, he sends Huntsman “a parcel of goods of the
newest patterns,” and at the same time orders a quantity of Huntsman’s
steel. “When thou hast some of a proper size and quality for me, and an
opportunity of sending it, thou may’st, but I should be glad to have it
a little tougher than the last.” He concludes--“I hope thy Philosophic
Spirit still laboureth within thee, and may it soon bring forth Fruit
useful to mankind, but more particularly to thyself, is the sincere wish
of Thy Obliged Friend.” With a view to economy, Boulton in course of time
erected a steel-house of his own for the purpose of making steel; and he
frequently used it to convert the cuttings and scraps of the small iron
wares which he manufactured, into ordinary steel, afterwards melting and
converting it into cast-steel in the usual way.
[96] For Memoir of Huntsman, see ‘Industrial Biography,’ 102–110.
From the earliest glimpses we can get of Boulton as a man of business, it
would appear to have been his aim to be at the top of whatsoever branch
of manufacture he undertook. He endeavoured to produce the best possible
articles in regard of design, material, and workmanship. Taste was then
at a low ebb, and “Brummagem” had become a byword for everything that was
gaudy, vulgar, and meretricious. Boulton endeavoured to get rid of this
reproach, and aimed at raising the standard of taste in manufacture to the
highest point. With this object, he employed the best artists to design
his articles, and the cleverest artisans to manufacture them. Apart from
the question of elevating the popular taste, there can be no doubt that
this was good policy on his part, for it served to direct public attention
to the superior and honest quality of the articles produced by his firm,
and eventually brought him a large accession of business.
In 1759, Boulton’s father died, bequeathing to him the considerable
property which he had accumulated by his business. The year following,
when thirty-two years of age, Matthew married Anne, the daughter of Luke
Robinson, Esq., of Lichfield. The lady was a distant relation of his own;
the Dyotts of Stitchbrooke, whose heir his grandfather had married, being
nearly related to the Babingtons of Curborough, from whom Miss Robinson
was lineally descended--Luke Robinson having married the daughter and
co-heir of John Babington of Curborough and Patkington. Considerable
opposition was offered to the marriage by the lady’s friends, on account
of Matthew Boulton’s occupation; but he pressed his suit, and with good
looks and a handsome presence to back him, he eventually succeeded
in winning the heart and hand of Anne Robinson. He was now, indeed,
in a position to have retired from business altogether. But a life of
inactivity had no charms for him. He liked to mix with men in the affairs
of active life, and to take his full share in the world’s business.
Indeed, he hated ease and idleness, and found his greatest pleasure in
constant occupation.
Instead, therefore, of retiring from trade, he determined to engage in it
more extensively. He entertained the ambition of founding a manufactory
that should be the first of its kind, and serve as a model for the
manufacturers of his neighbourhood. His premises on Snow-hill,[97]
Birmingham, having become too small for his purpose, he looked about
him for a suitable spot on which to erect more commodious workshops;
and he was shortly attracted by the facilities presented by the property
afterwards so extensively known as the famous Soho.
[97] While on Snow-hill, Mr. Boulton’s business was principally
confined to the making of buttons, shoe-buckles, articles in
steel, and various kinds of trinkets. His designation was that
of “toymaker,” as is shown by the following document copied
from the original:--“Received of Matthew Boulton, toymaker,
Snow-hill, three shillings and sixpence, for which sum I
solemnly engage, if he should be chosen by lot to serve in
the militia for this parish, at the first meeting for that
purpose, to procure a substitute that shall be approved of.
Birmingham, January 11, 1762, Henry Brookes, Sergt.” The
Birmingham toymaker was, however, often a man doing a large
business, producing articles of utility as well as ornament.
Mr. Osler, the Birmingham manufacturer of glass beads and other
toys, when examined before a Committee of the House of Commons
many years since, astonished the members by informing them that
trifling though dolls’ eyes might appear to be as an article of
manufacture, he had once obtained an order for 500_l._ worth of
the article. “Eighteen years ago,” said he, “on my first going
to London, a respectable-looking man in the city asked me if I
could supply him with dolls’ eyes; and I was foolish enough to
feel half offended; I thought it derogatory to my dignity as a
manufacturer to make dolls’ eyes. He took me into a room quite
as wide, and perhaps twice the length of this, and we had just
room to walk between the stacks, from the floor to the ceiling,
of parts of dolls. He said, ‘These are only the legs and the
arms; the trunks are below.’ But I saw enough to convince
me, that he wanted a great many eyes.... He ordered various
quantities, and of various sizes and qualities. On returning
to the Tavistock Hotel, I found that the order amounted to
upwards of 500_l._... Calculating on every child in this country
not using a doll till two years old, and throwing it aside at
seven, and having a new one annually, I satisfied myself that
the eyes alone would produce a circulation of a great many
thousand pounds. I mention this merely to show the importance
of trifles.”--Babbage, ‘Economy of Machinery and Manufactures,’
243–5.
Soho is about two miles north of Birmingham, on the Wolverhampton road.
It is not in the parish of Birmingham, nor in the county of Warwick, but
just over the border, in the county of Stafford. Down to the middle of
last century the ground on which it stands was a barren heath, used only
as a rabbit-warren. The sole dwelling on it was the warrener’s hut, which
stood near the summit of the hill, on the spot afterwards occupied by
Soho House; and the warrener’s well is still to be found in one of the
cellars of the mansion. In 1756, Mr. Edward Ruston took a lease of the
ground for ninety-nine years from Mr. Wyerley, the lord of the manor,
with liberty to make a cut about half a mile in length for the purpose
of turning the waters of Hockley Brook into a pool under the brow of the
hill. The head of water thus formed was used to drive a feeble mill below,
which Mr. Ruston had established for laminating metals. He also built
a small dwelling-house about 150 yards from the mill, and expended upon
the place a sum of about 1000_l._ in all. When Mr. Boulton was satisfied
that the place would suit his purpose, he entered into arrangements with
Mr. Ruston for the purchase of his lease,[98] on the completion of which
he proceeded to rebuild the mill on a large scale, and in course of time
removed thither the whole of his tools, machinery, and workmen. The new
manufactory, when finished, consisted of a series of roomy workshops
conveniently connected with each other, and capable of accommodating
upwards of a thousand workmen. The building and stocking of the premises
cost upwards of 20,000_l._
[98] Mr. Boulton afterwards purchased the fee simple of the
property, together with much of the adjoining land. The nature
of his tenure caused him to take a lively interest in the
question of common lands enclosure, and at a much later period
(17th April, 1790) we find him writing to the Right Hon. Lord
Hawkesbury as follows:--“The argument of robbing the poor [by
enclosures of wastes] is fallacious. They have no legal title
to the common land; and the more of it that is cultivated, the
more work and the more bread there will be for them. I speak
from experience; for I founded my manufactory upon one of the
most barren commons in England, where there existed but a few
miserable huts filled with idle beggarly people, who by the
help of the common land and a little thieving made shift to
live without working. The scene is now entirely changed. I have
employed a thousand men, women, and children, in my aforesaid
manufactory for nearly thirty years past. The Lord of the Manor
hath exterminated these very poor cottages, and hundreds of
clean comfortable cheerful houses are found erected in their
place. Thus the inhabitants of the parish have been trebled
without at all increasing the poor levies. I am more confirmed
in this view when I turn my eyes to a neighbouring parish
(Sutton Colefield), where there are 10,000 acres of common land
uncultivated, and yet the poor rates are very high. Let this
land be divided, enclosed, cultivated, and rendered saleable to
active, industrious, and spirited men; and the poor will then
have plenty of work, and the next generation of them will be
fully reconciled to earning their bread instead of begging for
it.”--Boulton MSS.
[Illustration: SOHO MANUFACTORY.]
Before removing to Soho, Mr. Boulton took into partnership Mr. John
Fothergill, with the object of more vigorously extending his business
operations. Mr. Fothergill possessed a very limited capital, but he was a
man of good character and active habits of business, with a considerable
knowledge of foreign markets. On the occasion of his entering the concern,
stock was taken of the warehouse on Snow Hill; and some idea of the extent
of Boulton’s business at the time may be formed from the fact, that his
manager, Mr. Zaccheus Walker, assisted by Farquharson, Nuttall, Frogatt,
and half-a-dozen labourers, were occupied during eight days in weighing
metals, counting goods, and preparing an inventory of the effects and
stock in trade. The partnership commenced at midsummer, 1762, and shortly
after the principal manufactory was removed to Soho.
Steps were immediately taken to open up new connexions and agencies at
home and abroad; and a large business was shortly established with many
of the principal towns and cities of Europe, in filagree and inlaid work,
livery and other buttons, buckles, clasps, watch-chains, and various
kinds of ornamental metal wares. The firm shortly added the manufacture
of silver plate and plated goods to their other branches,[99] and turned
out large quantities of candlesticks, urns, brackets, and various articles
in ormolu. The books of the firm indicate the costly nature of their
productions, 500 ounces of silver being given out at a time, besides
considerable quantities of gold and platina for purposes of fabrication.
Boulton himself attended to the organization and management of the works
and to the extension of the trade at home, while Fothergill devoted
himself to establishing and superintending the foreign agencies.
[99] Mr. Keir, in a MS. memoir of Mr. Boulton now before us,
says he was the first to introduce the silver plate business at
Birmingham, and to make complete services in solid silver. But
the business was not profitable, in consequence of the great
value of the material, the loss of interest upon which was not
compensated by the additional price put upon it for workmanship.
One good consequence of the silver plate business, however,
was the establishment of an assay office in Birmingham, the
necessary Act for which was obtained at Mr. Boulton’s expense,
and proved of much advantage to the town.
From the first, Boulton aimed at establishing a character for the
excellence of his productions. They must not only be honest in
workmanship, but tasteful in design. He determined, so far as in him
lay, to get rid of the “Brummagem” reproach. Thus we find him writing to
his partner from London:--“The prejudice that Birmingham hath so justly
established against itself makes every fault conspicuous in all articles
that have the least pretensions to taste. How can I expect the public to
countenance rubbish from Soho, while they can procure sound and perfect
work from any other quarter?”
He frequently went to town for the express purpose of reading and making
drawings of rare works in metal in the British Museum, sending the
results down to Soho. When rare objects of art were offered for sale, he
endeavoured to secure them. “I bid five guineas,” he wrote his partner on
one occasion, “for the Duke of Marlborough’s great blue vase, but it sold
for ten.... I bought two bronzed figures, which are sent herewith.” He
borrowed antique candlesticks, vases, and articles in metal from the Queen
and from various members of the nobility. “I wish Mr. Eginton,” he wrote,
“would take good casts from the Hercules and the Hydra, and then let it
be well gilt and returned with the seven vases; for ’tis the Queen’s. I
perceive we shall want many such figures, and therefore we should omit
no opportunity of taking good casts.” The Duke of Northumberland lent
Boulton many of his most highly-prized articles for imitation by his
workmen. Among his other liberal helpers in the same way, we find the Duke
of Richmond, Lord Shelburne, and the Earl of Dartmouth. The Duke gave
him an introduction to Horace Walpole, for the purpose of enabling him
to visit and examine the art treasures of Strawberry Hill. “The vases,”
said he, in writing to Boulton, “are, in my opinion, better worth your
seeing than anything in England, and I wish you would have exact drawings
of them taken, as I may very possibly like to have them copied by you.”
Lord Shelburne’s opinion of Boulton may be gathered from his letter to
Mr. Adams, the architect, in which he said:--“Mr. Boulton is the most
enterprising man in different ways in Birmingham, and is very desirous
of cultivating Mr. Adams’s taste in his productions, and has bought his
Dioclesian by Lord Shelburne’s advice.”
Boulton, however, did not confine himself to England; he searched
the Continent over for the best specimens of handicraft as models for
imitation; and when he found them he strove to equal, if not to excel them
in style and quality. He sent his agent, Mr. Wendler, on a special mission
of this sort, to Venice, Rome, and other Italian cities, to purchase
for him the best specimens of metal-work, and obtain for him designs of
various ornaments--vases, cameos, intaglios, and statuary. On one occasion
we find Wendler sending him 456 prints, Boulton acknowledging that they
will prove exceedingly useful for the purposes of his manufacture. At the
same time, Fothergill was travelling through France and Germany with a
like object, while he was also establishing new connexions with a view to
extended trade.[100]
[100] “If, in the course of your future travelling,” he wrote
Mr. Wendler (July, 1767), “you can pick up for me any metallic
ores or fossil substances, or any other curious natural
productions, I should be much obliged to you, as I am fond of
all those things that have a tendency to improve my knowledge in
mechanical arts, in which my manufactory will every year become
more and more general, and therefore wish to know the taste, the
fashions, the toys, both useful and ornamental, the implements,
vessels, &c., that prevail in all the different parts of Europe,
as I should be glad to work for all Europe in all things that
they may have occasion for--gold, silver, copper, plated, gilt,
pinchbeck, steel, platina, tortoiseshell, or anything else that
may become an article of general demand. I have lately begun to
make snuff-boxes, instrument-cases, tooth-picks, &c., in metal,
gilt, and in tortoiseshell inlaid, likewise gilt and pinchbeck
watch-chains. We are now being completely fixed at Soho, and
when Mr. Fothergill returns (which will not be for six months),
I shall then have more time to attend to improvements than I
have at present.”--Boulton MSS.
While Boulton was ambitious of reaching the highest excellence in his own
line of business, he did not confine himself to that, but was feeling his
way in various directions outside of it. Thus to his friend Wedgwood he
wrote on one occasion, that he admired his vases so much that he “almost
wished to be a potter.” At one time, indeed, he had serious thoughts of
beginning the fictile manufacture; but he rested satisfied with mounting
in metal the vases which Wedgwood made. “The mounting of vases,” he wrote,
“is a large field for fancy, in which I shall indulge, as I perceive it
possible to convert even a very ugly vessel into a beautiful vase.”[101]
[101] Boulton to Wedgwood, January, 1769.--Wedgwood was one of
his most intimate friends; the two alike aiming at excellence in
their respective branches of production. Their kindred efforts
seem to have excited the ire of some satirist, whose effusion
against them in the ‘Public Ledger’ is thus referred to in the
postscript of a letter from Wedgwood to Boulton, dated 19th
February, 1771:--“If you take in the ‘Public Ledger’ you’ll see
that Mr. Antipuffado has done me the honour to rank me with the
most _stupendous geniuses_ of the age, and has really _cut me
up very cleanly_. He talks, too, that he should not wonder if
some surprising genius at Birmingham should be tempted to make
_Roman medals_ and _tenpenny nails_, or _Corinthian knives_ and
_daggers_, and style himself Roman medal and Etruscan tenpenny
nail-maker to the Empress of Abyssinia. But see the paper: I
believe it is the first week in February, and is one of the
better sort of this class.”--Boulton MSS.
Another branch of business that he sought to establish was the manufacture
of clocks. It was one of his leading ideas, that articles in common
use might be made much better and cheaper if manufactured on a large
scale with the help of the best machinery; and he thought this might be
successfully done in the making of clocks and timepieces. The necessary
machinery was erected accordingly, and the new branch of business was
started. Some of the timepieces were of an entirely novel arrangement.
One of them, invented by Dr. Small, contained but a single wheel, and was
considered a piece of very ingenious construction. Boulton also sought
to rival the French makers of ornamental timepieces, by whom the English
markets were then almost entirely supplied; and some of the articles of
this sort turned out by him were of great beauty. One of his most ardent
encouragers and admirers, the Hon. Mrs. Montagu, wrote to him,--“I take
greater pleasure in our victories over the French in the contention of
arts than of arms. The achievements of Soho, instead of making widows
and orphans, make marriages and christenings. Your noble industry, while
elevating the public taste, provides new occupations for the poor, and
enables them to bring up their families in comfort. Go on, then, sir,
to triumph over the French in taste, and to embellish your country with
useful inventions and elegant productions.”
Boulton’s efforts to improve the industrial arts did not, however, always
meet with such glowing eulogy as this. Two of his most highly finished
astronomical clocks could not find purchasers at his London sale; on
which he wrote to his wife at Soho, “I find philosophy at a very low ebb
in London, and I have therefore brought back my two fine clocks, which I
will send to a market where common sense is not out of fashion. If I had
made the clocks play jigs upon bells, and a dancing bear keeping time, or
if I had made a horse-race upon their faces, I believe they would have
had better bidders. I shall therefore bring them back to Soho, and some
time this summer will send them to the Empress of Russia, who, I believe,
would be glad of them.”[102] During the same visit to London, he was more
successful with the king and queen, who warmly patronised his productions.
“The king,” he wrote to his wife, “hath bought a pair of cassolets, a
Titus, a Venus clock, and some other things, and inquired this morning how
yesterday’s sale went. I shall see him again, I believe. I was with them,
the queen and all the children, between two and three hours. There were,
likewise, many of the nobility present. Never was man so much complimented
as I have been; but I find that compliments don’t make fat nor fill the
pocket. The queen showed me her last child, which is a beauty, but none
of ’em are equal to the General of Soho or the fair Maid of the Mill.[103]
God bless them both, and kiss them for me.”
[102] The clocks, with several other articles, were sent out to
Russia, and submitted to the Empress through the kindness of
Earl Cathcart. His lordship, in communicating the result to
Mr. Boulton, said--“I have the pleasure to inform you that her
Imperial Majesty not only bought them all, last week, but did
me the honour to tell me that she was extremely pleased with
them, and thought them superior in every respect to the French,
as well as cheaper, which entitled them in all lights to a
preference.”
In another letter he described a subsequent visit to the palace. “I am to
wait upon their majesties again so soon as our Tripod Tea-kitchen arrives,
and again upon some other business. The queen, I think, is much improved
in her person, and she now speaks English like an English lady. She
draws very finely, is a great musician, and works with her needle better
than Mrs. Betty. However, without joke, she is extremely sensible, very
affable, and a great patroness of English manufactures. Of this she gave
me a particular instance; for, after the king and she had talked to me for
nearly three hours, they withdrew, and then the queen sent for me into
her boudoir, showed me her chimneypiece, and asked me how many vases it
would take to furnish it; ‘for,’ said she, ‘all that china shall be taken
away.’ She also desired that I would fetch her the two finest steel chains
I could make. All this she did of her own accord, without the presence of
the king, which I could not help putting a kind construction upon.”[104]
[103] Pet names of his two children, Matthew Robinson and Anne
Boulton.
[104] These letters are without date, but we infer that they were
written in the summer of 1767.
Thus stimulated by royal and noble patronage, Boulton exerted himself
to the utmost to produce articles of the highest excellence. Like his
friend Wedgwood, he employed Flaxman and other London artists to design
his choicer goods; but he had many foreign designers and skilled workmen,
French and Italian, in his regular employment. He attracted these men
by liberal wages, and kept them attached to him by kind and generous
treatment. On one occasion we find the Duke of Richmond applying to him to
recommend a first-class artist to execute some special work in metal for
him. Boulton replies that he can strongly recommend one of his own men,
an honest, steady workman, an excellent metal turner. “He hath made for
me some exceeding good achromatic telescopes [another branch of Boulton’s
business].... I give him two guineas a week and a house to live in. He is
a Frenchman, and formerly worked with the famous M. Germain; he afterwards
worked for the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, and he hath worked upwards
of two years for me.”[105]
Before many years had passed, Soho was spoken of with pride, as one
of the best schools of skilled industry in England. Its fame extended
abroad as well as at home, and when distinguished foreigners came into
England, they usually visited Soho as one of the national sights. When
the manufactory was complete[106] and in full work, Boulton removed from
his house on Snow-hill to the mansion of Soho, which he had by this time
considerably enlarged and improved. There he continued to live until the
close of his life, maintaining a splendid hospitality. Men of all nations,
and of all classes and opinions, were received there by turns,--princes,
philosophers, artists, authors, merchants, and poets. In August, 1767,
while executing the two chains for the queen, we find him writing to
his London agent as his excuse for a day’s delay in forwarding it: “I
had lords and ladies to wait on yesterday; I have French and Spaniards
to-day; and to-morrow I shall have Germans, Russians, and Norwegians.”
For many years the visitors at Soho House were so numerous and arrived in
such constant succession, that it more resembled an hotel than a private
mansion.
[105] Boulton to the Duke of Richmond, April 8, 1770. The Duke
was engaged at the time in preparing a set of machines for
making the various experiments in Natural Philosophy described
in S’Gravande’s book. The Duke was himself a good turner and
worker in metal.
[106] The manufactory was complete so far as regarded the hardware
manufacture. But additions were constantly being made to it;
and, as other branches of industry were added, it became more
than doubled in extent and accommodation.
[Illustration: SOHO HOUSE.]
The rapid extension of the Soho business necessarily led to the increase
of the capital invested in it. Boulton had to find large sums of money
for increased stock, plant, and credits. He raised 3000_l._ on his wife’s
estate; he borrowed 5000_l._ from his friend Baumgarten; and he sold
considerable portions of the property left him by his father, by which
means he was enabled considerably to extend his operations. There were
envious busybodies about who circulated rumours to his discredit, and
set the report on foot, that to carry on a business on so large a scale
would require a capital of 80,000_l._ “Their evil speaking,” said he to
a correspondent, “will avail but little, as our house is founded on so
firm a rock that envy and malice will not be able to shake it; and I am
determined to spare neither pains nor money to establish such a house
as will acquire both honour and wealth.” The rapid strides he was making
may be inferred from the statement made to the same correspondent, which
showed that the gross returns of the firm, which were 7000_l._ in 1763,
had advanced to 30,000_l._ in 1767, with orders still upon the increase.
Though he had a keen eye for business, Boulton regarded character
more than profit. He would have no connexion with any transaction of a
discreditable kind. Orders were sent to him from France for base money,
but he spurned them with indignation. “I will do anything,” he wrote to
M. Motteaux, his Paris agent, “short of being common informer against
particular persons, to stop the malpractices of the Birmingham coiners.”
He declared he was as ready to do business on reasonable terms as any
other person, but he would not undersell; “for,” said he, “to run down
prices would be to run down quality, which could only have the effect of
undermining confidence, and eventually ruining trade.” His principles
were equally honourable as regarded the workmen of rival employers. “I
have had many offers and opportunities,” he said to one, “of taking your
people, whom I could, with convenience to myself, have employed; but it is
a practice I abhor. Nevertheless, whatever game we play at, I shall always
avail myself of the rules with which ’tis played, or I know I shall make
but a very indifferent figure in it.”[107]
He was frequently asked to take gentlemen apprentices into his works, but
declined to receive them, though hundreds of pounds’ premium were in many
cases offered with them. He preferred employing the humbler class of boys,
whom he could train up as skilled workmen. He was also induced to prefer
the latter for another reason, of a still more creditable kind. “I have,”
said he, in answer to a gentleman applicant, “built and furnished a house
for the reception of one kind of apprentices--fatherless children, parish
apprentices, and hospital boys; and gentlemen’s sons would probably find
themselves out of place in such companionship.”
[107] Boulton to John Taylor, 23rd January, 1769. Boulton MSS.
While occupied with his own affairs, and in conducting what he described
as “the largest hardware manufactory in the world,” Boulton found time to
take an active part in promoting the measures then on foot for opening up
the internal navigation of the country. He was a large subscriber to the
Grand Trunk and Birmingham Canal schemes, the latter of which was of the
greater importance to him personally, as it passed close by Soho, and thus
placed his works in direct communication both with London and the northern
coal and manufacturing districts.[108]
[108] When the canal came to be constructed at the point at which
it passed Soho, it occasioned him great anxiety through the
leakage of the canal banks and loss of water for the purposes
of his manufactory. The supply, especially in dry summers,
was already too limited; but the canal threatened to destroy
it altogether. Writing to Mr. Thomas Gilbert, M.P., on the
subject in February, 1769, he said, “The very holes which Mr.
Smeaton hath dug to try the ground, drink up the water nearly
as fast as you can pour it in.... Let Smeaton or Brindley, or
all the engineers upon earth give what evidence they will before
Parliament, I am convinced by last summer’s experience that if
the proprietors of the canal continue to take the two streams
on which my mill depends, it is ruined. I might as well have
built it upon the summit of the hill.” After the act had passed
he wrote his friend Garbett, “I have seen the testimony of the
two engineers, Smeaton and Yeoman, but I value the opinions
of neither of them, nor of Brindley nor Simcox (in this case),
nor of the whole tribe of jobbing ditchers, who are retained as
evidence on any side which first applies for them.” His alarms,
however, proved unfounded, as the leakage of the canal was
eventually remedied; and in November, 1772, we find him writing
to the Earl of Warwick, “Our navigation goes on prosperously;
the junction with the Wolverhampton Canal is complete; and we
already sail from Birmingham to Bristol and to Hull.”--Boulton
MSS.
Coming down to a few years later, in 1770, we find his business still
growing, and his works and plant absorbing still more capital, principally
obtained by borrowing. In a letter to Mr. Adams, the celebrated architect,
requesting him to prepare the design of a new sale-room in London, he
described the manufactory at Soho as in full progress, from 700 to 800
persons being employed as metallic artists and workers in tortoiseshell,
stones, glass, and enamel. “I have almost every machine,” said he, “that
is applicable to those arts; I have two water-mills employed in rolling,
polishing, grinding, and turning various sorts of lathes. I have trained
up many, and am training up more plain country lads into good workmen;
and wherever I find indications of skill and ability, I encourage them.
I have likewise established correspondence with almost every mercantile
town in Europe, and am thus regularly supplied with orders for the grosser
articles in common demand, by which I am enabled to employ such a number
of hands as to provide me with an ample choice of artists for the finer
branches of work; and I am thereby encouraged to erect and employ a more
extensive apparatus than it would be prudent to provide for the production
of the finer articles only.”
It is indeed probable--though Boulton was slow to admit it--that he
had been extending his business more rapidly than his capital would
conveniently allow; for we find him becoming more and more pressed for
means to meet the interest on the borrowed money invested in buildings,
tools, and machinery. He had obtained 10,000_l._ from a Mr. Tonson of
London; and on the death of that gentleman, in 1772, he had considerable
difficulty in raising the means to pay off the debt. His embarrassment
was increased by a serious commercial panic, aggravated by the failure
of Fordyce brothers, by which a considerable sum deposited with them
remained locked up for some time, and he was eventually a loser to the
extent of 2000_l._ Other failures and losses followed; and trade came
almost to a standstill. Yet he bravely held on. “We have a thousand mouths
at Soho to feed,” he says; “and it has taken so much labour and pains to
get so valuable and well-organised a staff of workmen together, that the
operations of the manufactory must be carried on at whatever risk.” He
continued to receive distinguished visitors at his works. “Last week,” he
wrote Mr. Ebbenhouse, “we had Prince Poniatowski, nephew of the King of
Poland, and the French, Danish, Sardinian, and Dutch Ambassadors; this
week we have had Count Orloff, one of the five celebrated brothers who
are such favourites with the Empress of Russia; and only yesterday I had
the Viceroy of Ireland, who dined with me. Scarcely, a day passes without
a visit from some distinguished personage.”
Besides carrying on the extensive business connected with his manufactory
at Soho, this indefatigable man found time to prosecute the study of
several important branches of practical science. It was scarcely to be
supposed that he had much leisure at his disposal; but in life it often
happens that the busiest men contrive to find the most leisure; and he
who is “up to the ears” in work, can, nevertheless, snatch occasional
intervals to devote to inquiries in which his heart is engaged. Hence we
find Boulton ranging at intervals over a wide field of inquiry; at one
time studying geology, and collecting fossils, minerals, and specimens
for his museum; at another, reading and experimenting on fixed air; and at
another studying Newton’s works with the object of increasing the force of
projectiles.[109] But the subject which perhaps more than all interested
him was the improvement of the Steam Engine, which shortly after led to
his introduction to James Watt.
[109] Among Boulton’s scientific memoranda, we find some curious
speculations, bearing the date of 1765, relative to improvements
which he was trying to work out in gunnery. He proposed the
truer boring of the guns, the use of a telescopic sight, and a
cylindrical shot with its end of a parabolic form as presenting
in his opinion the least resistance to the air.