BUSINESSMEN AND THE POLITICS OF THE INDUSTRY Duncan Frankis

In 1866 W.C. Aitken concluded that ‘what is in cotton, Bradford is in , Sheffield is in , Birmingham is in brass’. Historians have written about the key trades of Manchester, Bradford and Sheffield but the Birmingham brass industry has been a neglected subject. Brass, an alloy of copper, tin and zinc, was used to make products in Birmingham which were exported across the globe. It was made into fashion items such as and , musical instruments, everyday items such as locks and bellows, components for guns, and it could also be applied to naval vessels, primarily the sheathing of ships. Trading in this versatile metal became highly lucrative in the eighteenth century and manufacturers recognised the advantage of monopolising control of the industry. Revolutionary Players/Library of Birmingham Players/Library Revolutionary

Pocket compasses in plain, superior and locket style brass cases. BIRMINGHAM BUSINESSMEN AND THE POLITICS OF THE BRASS INDUSTRY

The Beginnings of the Birmingham Birmingham’s Industrial Lobbyists Brass Industry The success of the Birmingham brass community was due dominated the brass industry at the beginning of the to the effective co-operation of local businesses, as well as eighteenth century, whilst iron and steel were the core materials the emergence of a politically conscious group of which were used by the metal workers of Birmingham from the industrialists who used lobbying and networking to early sixteenth century. There was a plentiful supply of iron ore in influence both the public and politicians, as well as to south and east . In the eighteenth undermine their opponents. By the final decades of the century, Birmingham manufacturers, with their long and eighteenth century regular meetings were held between distinguished history of metal working, increasingly turned towards brass and copper manufacturers to plan how best to making brass items. safeguard their trade from external threats. Along with their Metal manufacturing skills and techniques were passed down development of a formal commercial committee for the through the generations and could easily be transferred to brass town, the men who organised these meetings began to working. In any case, brass was cheaper to work with and could be represent Birmingham and its interests, at a time when it transformed into high-value intricate goods. Seventeenth-century had no MP in Parliament. Birmingham metal working had been based in small handicraft There were many figures responsible for the development workshops, but in the eighteenth century the influence of of the culture of politico-industrialism within Birmingham, Bristolian organisational methods began to be employed in who came from all manner of social backgrounds. The Birmingham. Large brass foundries were established, the first of meetings of the commercial committee and brass which was created in 1741 on Coleshill Street by the Turner family. manufacturers included rich savants (thinkers) and working- class fabricants (makers). Bristol versus The creation of this Birmingham public sphere in which Excavation of sites in social status was Birmingham and Bristol disregarded, allowed a reveals numerous degree of inclusivity in similarities between the which a variety of men brass manufacturing could interact to frame a buildings, which suggests common agenda. The that Birmingham way in which the brass businesses incorporated manufacturing many influences from community dealt with their Bristolian threats to their interests is counterparts. After 1741 revealed in more brass houses were correspondence, booklets established and a thriving and official enquiries brass-making and trading located in the Boulton community developed in and Watt archives in the

Birmingham. At the same of Birmingham Library Library of Birmingham. time however, The Brass House, Broad Street, Birmingham, from Bisset's Magnificent Directory or The threats came from competition was Literary and Commercial Iconography (1808). foreign competition and emerging from wars, trade restrictions . As a result of increased economic rivalry and placed upon the industry by the British Parliament, as well competition for, and from, foreign markets, tensions grew between as financial disputes with the Cornish mining community the two great English brass manufacturing towns: Bristol and who supplied the manufacturers with the copper. Birmingham. Some of the famous names who helped to co-ordinate and Bristol brass families, such as the Champions, tried to force mobilise the organisation and defence of the Birmingham Birmingham manufacturers out of the market by patenting brass trade were , , Samuel techniques and products. However, the manufacturers in Garbett, John Wilkinson and members of the Galton family. Birmingham were not easily deterred and with improvements in These industrialists were successful businessmen and the transport infrastructure because of construction, as well as innovators: Boulton and Watt created steam engines, and a local co-operative effort, Birmingham began to thrive whilst made money through minting coins and making luxury Bristol struggled to deal with foreign competition. items. Garbett made significant contributions in the BIRMINGHAM BUSINESSMEN AND THE POLITICS OF THE BRASS INDUSTRY Birmingham City Archives Birmingham City Archives

Portrait of Matthew Boulton. Portrait of James Watt.

technology of mass production, improving the process of making At the turn of the nineteenth century brass manufacturing sulphuric acid and its containers. The Galton family manufactured was a global phenomenon. Copper mines were established guns that were sold across the globe and used in the wars in the throughout Europe, South America and Asia, and metal late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as well as in the manufacturers tried to gain advantages over their rivals. slave trade. Through their business connections and reputations, Industrial espionage was feared by the government of Great these men made fortunes and created networks of influence. Britain for military as well as economic reasons. Birmingham They were able to affect national policy, especially when working had contributed to the technological innovation of sheathing the collectively as a group. They all used brass within their businesses hulls of naval ships with brass and a concerned Parliament tried and had a vested interest in protecting the industry. to keep the technique, and those skilled enough to implement it, within Britain. Methods and Activities They achieved this through restrictive trade legislation, which As a result of the American Revolution (1765-1783) the inadvertently proved to be the catalyst for other manufacturing British Government enforced a number of restrictions on trade centres in continental Europe to pour resources into their own with America. The early attempts by Midlands-based trades whilst restricting the imports of Birmingham businesses. industrialists in petitioning and lobbying against these trade Birmingham workers suffered and many highly-trained and restrictions were unsuccessful. As the eighteenth century skilled fabricants moved to Europe where there were lucrative continued, however, and their businesses and networks became opportunities. French and Italian manufacturers in particular more sophisticated, these men were able to enhance their pressure- invited numerous Birmingham workers to join their workforce, group activities and thereby influence parliamentary decision- in the hope that they would be able to teach the naval secrets making more effectively. that had given Britain a technical edge. Janet Sullivan BIRMINGHAM BUSINESSMEN AND THE POLITICSOF THE BRASSINDUSTRY the profits of Birmingham brassmanufacturers.the profits ofBirmingham andthreatened owners todictatetheir prices inCornwall The highdemandforbrassproducts allowed coppermine wildly, but generallythey followed anupward trajectory. fluctuated copperprices In thelateeighteenthcentury The Parliamentary Enquiryof1799 previous decade asthetwo groups foughtfordominance. had publicly andunceremoniously clashedover the owners, ledby Welsh coppermagnate Thomas Williams, in1799. and coppertradeofGreat Britain intothestateofbrass enquiry led toaparliamentary miningcommunity. oftheCornish the fury This conflict lobbiedforchange, brassmanufacturers Birmingham to Younger. Through theirlinkswithpoliticians, the Minister advisor oftheKing)andPrime William Pittthe Minister),Prime CharlesJenkinson hisfather (arespected JenkinsonRobert (whoasLord becameafuture promote theirown interests. These contactsincluded tousetheirinfluenceandcontacts elite ofBirmingham The Birmingham manufacturers and the Cornish mine andthe Cornish manufacturers The Birmingham ledthepolitico-industrial The threats to theindustry Parys Mountain, acopper mineinAnglesey, worked byThomasWilliams. important as the manufacturing elite became the leaders oflocal elitebecametheleaders asthe manufacturing important nineteenth century. their products were foundthroughout the world well intothe and hadbecome extremely influentialwithinBritain industrialists coppermining. dependence onCornish demand forscrappingtaxoncopperimports, whichfreed themfrom requirements were by 1801, granted includingtheirmostsignificant As aresult of theinvestigation almostallofBirmingham’s Aftermath trade. and theextenttowhichmuch ofthepopulationwas involved inthe was fortheevolution asatownbrass manufacturing ofBirmingham provideof theenquiry acompellingargumentforhow significant stake. Whilst much ofwhatwas revealed was hyperbole, thetranscripts were, andthatthewell-being oftheentire was Midlandsregion at that they were inamuch lessfinanciallystable situationthanthey facts, andcreatedtheenquiry scapegoatstopersuade twistedtruths In apoliticalmasterclass, exaggerated industrialists theBirmingham The trade, andthoseinchargeof it, continued tobehugely There was awidersignificance totheseevents. The Birmingham BIRMINGHAM BUSINESSMEN AND THE POLITICS OF THE BRASS INDUSTRY om rstock.c By Triff/Shutte Brass nautical instruments and items. social and political life. The Birmingham businessmen of the late Duncan Frankis is a University of Birmingham PhD candidate eighteenth century laid the foundation for the prominent role and a teaching associate. Birmingham played in the industrialisation of Britain in the nineteenth century. Writing in S. Timmins, The Industrial History of

Birmingham, Aitken concluded: Further Reading Its articles of cabinet and general brass foundry are to be found in M. Berg, The Age of Manufacturers 1700-1820: Industry, Innovation and every part of the world; its gas fittings in every city and town into Work in Britain (Fontana Press, 1985). which gas has been introduced, from Indus to the Poles – on the H. Hamilton, The English Brass and Copper Industries to 1800 (Frank railways of every country and on every sea, its locomotive and Cass, 1967). E. Hopkins, Birmingham, the First Manufacturing Town in the World, 1760– marine engine solid brass tubes generate the vapour which impels 1840 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989). the locomotive over the iron road, and propels the steam-boat over P. Jones, Industrial Enlightenment: Science, Technology and Culture in the ocean wave – its yellow metal bolts, nails, and sheathing hold Birmingham and the , 1760–1820 (Manchester University together and protect from decay ‘wooden walls’ of our own and Press, 2008). other countries ships – its ‘manillas’, once made in tons, are the M. Rowlands, Masters and Men in the West Midland Metalware Trades Before the (Manchester University Press, 1975). circulating medium of the natives of the Gold Coast – and its rings S. Timmins, The Industrial History of Birmingham found in The Resources, and ornaments of brass, sent out in immense quantities, are the chief Products and Industrial History of Birmingham and the Midland Hardware decorations of the belles on the banks of the distant Zambesi. l District (R. Hardwicke, 1866).

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