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.
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 3000l. on his wife’s estate; he borrowed 5000l. 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 80,000l. “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 7000l. in 1763, had advanced to 30,000l. 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.”
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]
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 10,000l. 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 2000l. 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.