FLOUR AND BREAD COMPANY (LIMITED).
INCORPORATED UNDER ACT OF PARLIAMENT,
For the purpose of Supplying the Public with the Best Bread at the Lowest Possible Price.
If this did not look like business, Arthur wondered what would. If all that varnish and gilding, all that lettering and painting, did not indicate success, he was very much out in his calculations. It was only the third day for the vans to be out, and they had not yet lost their pristine brilliancy. They were clean and fresh, as though they had that moment come out of the builder’s hands—the liveries were free from spot or stain—the brass of the harness was bright as lacquer—the horses were groomed to perfection—the drivers and the men behind both looked, in their fine conspicuous clothing, conscious and conceited, and, perhaps, a little shamefaced besides.
The London boys cheered the splendid conveyance, and put, at the same time, various rude questions to the individuals in charge.
The idle, dirty, half-starved looking women who are always gathered round the entrance to those wretched courts leading out of Gray’s Inn Lane, stared after the vehicle, and made audible comments upon it, which Arthur could hear as he passed by.
Very well-dressed people also took notice of the van, and wondered what the meaning of the motto might be. Ladies were especially interested in this question; and Arthur longed to stop and tell a few of the sweet creatures—not merely the English of Vis Unita Fortior, but also that he was one of the directors in the great Company.
Walking down Gray’s Inn Lane, the Squire certainly was a proof of the truth of his own quotation. As a master baker, singly, he would have felt very much ashamed of his trade, and vexed by any public recognition of it. As a master baker, associated with other gentlemen and noblemen also bakers, Squire Dudley conceived himself a person of importance, one of a body of philanthropists, who, “hearing the cry of the people for bread, pure bread, sweet, wholesome, nutritious bread, at a moderate price, had determined on forming themselves into a Company which, under the name of the ‘Protector,’ should guard alike the rights of producer and consumer—supply the public with the best bread at the lowest remunerative prices—ensure to the shareholders a fair and certain return for capital—do away with unwholesome, ill-ventilated, badly-constructed, insufficient and uncleanly bakehouses, and render the trade wholesome and remunerative to the employés connected with it, instead of permitting it to remain, as hitherto, a blot on nineteenth century civilization—one of the most enervating, pestiferous, dangerous trades which could be conceived.”—Vide Prospectus.
This is one of the many beauties of a Limited Liability Company: a man can have all the excitement, profit, and pleasure of trade, without any of its unpleasantness.