Industrial Englightenment in the West Midlands: Matthew Boulton, James Watt and the Soho Manufactory 1760- 1820

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A project to test the validity of the idea of an Industrial Enlightenment as applied to Britain in the second half of the eighteenth century. The investigation takes the form of a case study of the cultural history of Birmingham and the Black Country towns between 1760 and 1820. It is based principally on the private correspondence of Matthew Boulton and James Watt with their families, friends, acquaintances and collaborators. The business archives of the firm Boulton & Watt are also used, as are a large number of published visitor accounts. In the 1770s Boulton's show case metal ware manufactory at Soho just outside Birmingham was regarded as the biggest single-site factory in the western world. Travelers came from all over Europe and the Americas to tour the workshops and to admire the efficient use of labour and machinery to mass produce buttons, buckles and plated goods. Taken together, these sources offer a unique opportunity to explore how the Enlightenment- in its English dimension -empowered men like Matthew Boulton and James Watt to harness the scientific knowledge that was accumulating so rapidly in the eighteenth century to industrial processes.This research builds upon recent advances in our understanding of the cultural uses of Newtonian science, and it places those advances within the wider context of middle and upper-class consumption of fashion-sensitive ornamental goods. Whilst the research can only testify to the existence of an Industrial Enlightenment of the West Midlands, it is hoped that the approach adopted here will prompt historians to take a fresh look at other urbanising and industrialising regions, both in Britain and on the continent of Europe. The commercial, industrial and scientific activities of Matthew Bolton and his partner James Watt were by no means restricted to the West Midlands as this study will demonstrate. The project therefore points to ways in which research pursued according to an Industrial Enlightenment agenda might be taken in a comparative direction in the years to come.