Industries of Birmingham

Birmingham has been termed the first manufacturing town in the world. Unlike many of the textile industry-based towns of the north of the country which reached their notorious heyday in the 1800s, Birmingham already had a thriving industry in the mid 1700s.

Textiles has never played a key role for Birmingham, its industries being essentially concerned with metals rather than cloth. A milestone in its history was the creation of an assay office in the town in 1773 which gave its jewellery and plating industries an important boost. Sheffield experienced the same effect for the same reason. But Birmingham also had industrial innovators such as Matthew Boulton, John Taylor, Henry and George Elkington and Josiah Mason to force progress.

Elkington, Mason & Co's electro-plating factory in Newhall Street [built late 1830s]. The site was later the home of the Science Museum

The invention of machines revolutionised the textiles industry. This was not the case in Birmingham, however. Whereas in weaving a single machine could do the work of many humans, Birmingham's heavy industries were not susceptible to this kind of rationalisation. It was the advent of steam power which really boosted Birmingham's development and it is said that by 1870 the production capacity of steam-driven machines was more than that of its 150,000 human working population. Thus during the period from 1830 to 1870 these industries were organised in factories rather than in workshops, and in 1882 there were 1,671 registered factory chimneys in the town. The "town of a thousand trades" has stamped its mark on various branches of industry, such as steel pens, wire rolling, chain, papier maché, pins and nails, bicycles and haulage machinery, to name but a few. The major industries, however, have been:

  Brass
  Buttons
  Guns
  Jewellery

[In 1866] there were four main industries. They made jewellery, guns, buttons and brassware. There were 8,000 men and women working with brass, and a similar number of masters and men making jewellery, whilst the gun trade and button-making each found work for 5,800. They were small scale. Each trade employed many home workers and in the workshops just a few key workers. For example, an inquiry in the brass trade found that the average number employed in those work places, from which information was received, was 113. The statistics for Birmingham's exports in 1871 to U.S.A. bear out the importance of these trades: the value of the total exports was £1,127,669. Of this £165,745 was for needles and buttons, £118,839 for jewellery and £100,609 for guns. John Corbett, The Birmingham Trades Council 1866–1966, London 1966

Birmingham Central Library has a fantastic collection of trade directories ranging back to 1767. These are a fabulous aid to research if you can access them. If not, you can always approach the very helpful library staff to do a look-up for you (Cf. the "Research" page). Also Archive CD Books and Midlands Historical Data offer many scanned Birmingham directories in PDF format at quite reasonable prices.