For many years, the Spanish dominated South American cocoa cultivation. They introduced it to the West Indies and to islands such as Trinidad, where it soon became a staple crop. At first, English pirates raiding Spanish ships did not know what the bean was for. In 1648 the English chronicler Thomas Gage observed in his New Survey of the West Indies that when the English or Dutch seized a ship loaded with cocoa beans, “In anger and wrath we have hurled overboard this good commodity, not regarding the worth of it.”
Gradually, however, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the cocoa bean found its way into the coffee houses of Europe. Its first mention in England appears in an advertisement in the Public Advertiser on June 22 1657: “At a Frenchman’s house in Queensgate Alley is an excellent West India drink called Chocolate to be sold, where you may have it ready at any time at reasonable rates.” In the 1660s, the diarist Samuel Pepys describes enjoying his drink of “chocolatte” or “Jocolatte” so much that he was soon “slabbering for another.” Henry Stubbe, royal physician to King Charles II, published A Discourse Concerning Chocolata in 1662, in which he surveyed the “nature of the cacao-nut” and extolled the health benefits of the drink. Taken with spices it could relieve coughs and colds and strengthen heart and stomach. For anyone “tyred through business,” Stubbes heartily recommended chocolate twice a day. It could even serve as an aphrodisiac. Word of the exotic new drink spread across England. White’s famous Chocolate House, named after its Italian owner, Francis White, opened in 1693 in St. James, London.
Cocoa continued to gain in popularity principally as a drink prepared in the Mexican way, but it also was added as a flavoring to meat dishes, soups, and puddings. In Italy a recipe for chocolate sorbet survives from 1794. Once the mixture was prepared, “The vase is buried in snow layered with salt and frozen.” For the more adventurous palate, Italian recipes from the period listed cocoa as an ingredient in lasagne or added it to fried liver. While most European preparations “were rough . . . and produced poor results,” according to Richard Cadbury, “France developed a better system for roasting and grinding.” The French confiseurs got straight on with the sweet course; no messing with chilies, curries, and fried liver. By the nineteenth century, they were winning a reputation for their exquisite handcrafted sweets made from chocolate: delicious mousses, cakes, crèmes, dragées, and chocolate-coated nuts.
With the wheels of European commerce and consumerism driving demand, in the Americas the cultivation of the cocoa bean was gradually extended beyond Mexico and Guatemala, reaching south to the lower slopes of the Andes in Ecuador, the rolling plains of Venezuela, and into the fringes of the Amazon rain forest of Brazil. In the Caribbean, cocoa plantations were established in Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Granada as well as Trinidad, which became a British colony in 1802.
By the mid-nineteenth century, despite the growing interest in the cocoa bean in Europe, it remained expensive and principally a novelty for the wealthy. “When we take into account the indifferent means of preparation,” concluded Richard Cadbury, “we can hardly be surprised that it did not come into general favour with the public.” As Richard and George struggled to launch their business, the full potential of Theobroma cacao had yet to be revealed. The unprepossessing little bean offered the mere tantalizing promise of prosperity.
In the early 1860s, George and Richard hardly needed to undertake the charade of stocktaking, which they did as a matter of course twice a year. They knew their business was not thriving. Cadbury Brothers did not excite the nation’s taste buds. “We determined that we would close the business when we were unable to pay 20 shillings in the pound,” George said, committed to honoring all financial agreements in full. He admitted the stocktaking was “depressing” but nonetheless thrived on the challenge. “We went back again to our work with renewed vigour and were probably happier than most successful men.”
The struggle brought the brothers closer together. Quite apart from sharing the responsibility and the burden, Richard proved to be a delight as a partner. He was “very good natured and constantly up to practical jokes and fun of various kinds,” George wrote, “so that one almost doubts whether immediate success in a business is a blessing.” Workers too recalled Mr. George and Mr. Richard with a “cheery smile,” although they knew “the Firm was in low water and losing money.” They were aware of how dire things were and “at one stage expected any day to hear that the works were to be shut.”
As losses mounted, Richard formed a list of everything he owned, noting the price each item would fetch if it had to be sold at auction. In 1862, his young wife, Elizabeth, was pregnant, and on September 27, the arrival of his first son, Barrow (named after Richard’s mother’s family), was great cause for celebration. But Richard knew the financial security of his young family was uncertain. Both brothers planned to shut the business rather than risk defaulting on any money owed and accruing debt. The stocktaking at the end of the second year was particularly gloomy. By Christmas 1862, the Cadbury brothers’ losses had escalated to a further 304 pounds each.
But for George and Richard, there was another motive that went well beyond personal considerations. Business was not an end in itself; it was a means to an end. As Quakers, through their still failing business, they had a far greater goal to fulfill.
CHAPTER 3
Wretched Little Victims of the Workhouses
For George and Richard, the chocolate factory was to be much more than a commercial enterprise. As Quakers they shared a vision of social justice and reform: a new world in which the poor and needy would be lifted from the “ruin of deprivation.” For generations, Cadburys had been members of the Society of Friends or Quakers, a spiritual movement originally started by George Fox in the seventeenth century. In a curious irony, the very religion that inspired Quakers to act charitably towards the poor also produced a set of codes and practices that placed a few thousand close-knit families like the Cadburys in pole position to generate astounding material rewards at the start of the industrial age.
Richard and George had been brought up on stories of George Fox, and many of the values, aspirations, and disciplines that shaped their lives stemmed from Fox’s teachings. Born in 1624, the son of a weaver from Fenny Drayton, Leicestershire, Fox grew up with a passionate interest in religion at a time when the country had seen years of religious turmoil. Fox went “to many a priest looking for comfort, but found no comfort from them.” He was appalled at the inhumanity carried out in the name of religion: people imprisoned, hung, or even beheaded for their faith. Disregarding the danger following the outbreak of civil war in 1642, he left home the following year and set out on foot for London. At just nineteen years old, Fox embarked on a personal quest for greater understanding.
During his years of travels, “when my hopes . . . in all men were gone,” he had an epiphany. The key to religion was not to be found in the sermons of preachers but in an individual’s inner experience. Inspired, he began to speak out, urging people to listen to their own conscience. Because “God dwelleth in the hearts of obedient people,” he reasoned, it followed that an individual could find “the spirit of Christ within” to guide them, instead of taking orders from others. But his simple interpretation of Christianity put him in direct opposition to the authorities. If an individual was listening to the voice of God within himself, it followed that priests and religious authorities were a needless intermediary between man and God.
Fox was perceived as dangerous and his preaching blasphemous to established churches. Even the like-minded Puritans objected. They too adhered to a rigorous moral code and high standards of self-discipline, and they disdained worldly pursuits. But Fox’s emphasis on the direct relationship between a believer and God went far beyond what most Puritans deemed tolerable. In emphasizing the primary importance of an individual’s experience, Fox appeared contemptuous of the authorities and mocked their petty regulations. For example, he would not swear on oath. If there was only one absolute truth, he reason
ed, what was the point of a double standard, differentiating between “truth” and “truth on oath”?
By 1649 Fox had crossed one magistrate too many. He was thrown into jail in Nottingham, “a pitiful stinking place, where the wind brought in all the stench of the house.” The following year he was jailed in Derby prison for blasphemy. A justice in Derby in 1650 is believed to be the first to use the term “Quaker” to mock George Fox and his followers. He scoffed at the idea expressed in their meetings in which they were “silent before God” until moved to speak, “trembling at the word of the God.” Despite its origins as a term of abuse, the name Quaker soon became widespread.
Fox was imprisoned sixty times, but the Quaker movement continued to gain momentum. It is estimated that during the reign of Charles II, 198 Quakers were transported overseas as slaves, 338 died from injuries received defending their faith, and 13,562 were imprisoned. Among them were Richard and George’s forebears on their father’s side, including Richard Tapper Cadbury, a “woolcomber” who was held in Southgate prison in Exeter in 1683 and again in 1684.
By the end of Fox’s life in 1691, there were 100,000 Quakers, and the movement had spread to America, parts of Europe, and even the West Indies. Fox established a series of meetings for Friends to discuss issues and formalize business: regional Monthly Meeting, county Quarterly Meeting, and a national Yearly Meeting. Key decisions at these meetings were written down and became known as the Advices. By 1738 these writings had been collated by clerks, transcribed in elegant longhand, and bound in a green manuscript, Christian and Brotherly Advices, which was made available to Friends Meetings across the country. It set out codes of personal conduct for Friends, under such headings as “Love,” “Covetousness,” and “Discipline.” A section on “Plainness,” for example, encouraged Quakers to cultivate “plainness of speech, behaviour and apparel.” A Friend’s clothing should be dark and unadorned; even collars were removed from jackets as they were deemed too decorative.
The strict rules of the Quakers also dictated that anyone who married outside the society had to leave. As a result, Quaker families tended to intermarry, resulting in a close-knit community across England of several thousand Quaker families. Generations of Quakers had emerged from years of persecution with a sense of solidarity and bonds forged by friendship, marriage, apprenticeships, and business. As the Industrial Revolution was gathering speed, this same solidarity and self-reliance generated a new spirit of enterprise. At a time when there was no such thing as a national newspaper, the Quakers—meeting regularly in different regions across Britain—enjoyed a unique forum in which to exchange ideas.
In 1709 Abraham Darby, a Quaker from Shropshire, pioneered a method of smelting high-grade iron using coke rather than charcoal. His son, Abraham Darby II, improved the process, changing the traditional horse pumps for steam engines to recycle water and refining techniques for making quality wrought iron. The Darbys built the world’s first iron bridge and first major railway to ferry coal and ore at their iron foundry in Coalbrookdale in Shropshire. Their roaring furnaces drew visitors from miles around to see the awesome spectacle of flame, smoke, and machine. The younger Darby’s daughter found the noise alone of “the stupendous bellows whose alternate roars, like foaming billows, was awful to hear.”
Such advances fuelled the development of the iron industry, which powered the Industrial Revolution. In Sheffield, the Quaker inventor Benjamin Huntsman developed a purer and stronger form of cast steel. The Lloyds, a Welsh Quaker family, moved to Birmingham to create a factory for making iron rods and nails. In Bristol, a Quaker cooperative launched the Bristol Brass Foundry. By the early eighteenth century, Quakers managed approximately two-thirds of all British ironworks.
Railways accelerated the pace of change, and a Quaker was responsible for the world’s first passenger train. In 1814, a meeting with engineer George Stevenson inspired Edward Pease, a Quaker businessman, to build the Stockton and Darlington Railway. On September 27, 1825, the first steam-hauled passenger train travelled twelve miles to Stockton on what became known as the “Quaker Line.” Numerous Quakers were involved in financing and directing railway companies. Even the railway ticket and stamping machine was devised by a Quaker, Thomas Edmonson, as was the railway timetable itself, Bradshaw’s Railway Times, created by George Bradshaw.
There seemed no limit to the number of new ideas generated by Quaker businessmen. Chinaware originally imported by the East India Company sparked developments in pottery and porcelain. In Plymouth, William Cookworthy introduced a new way to make fine china using Cornish china clay. In Staffordshire, Josiah Wedgwood launched a pottery business. Enduring shoe businesses were founded by Quakers: John Somervell opened K Shoes in Kendall, and James Clark in the village of Street in Somerset established the firm that still bears his name. The Reckitts started their business in household goods, while the Crosfields were soap and chemical manufacturers whose company evolved into Lever Brothers. The roll call of Quaker entrepreneurs resounds through the centuries with names like Bryant and May, who designed a safer form of matches; Huntley and Palmer, who started a biscuit business in Reading; and Allen and Hanbury, who developed pharmaceuticals.
Banking too was built on Quaker virtue. At a time of little financial regulation, according to the writer Daniel Defoe, the activities of many eighteenth-century financiers were seen as “founded in Fraud, born of Deceit, nourished by Trick, Cheat, Wheedle, Forgeries, Falsehood”—not totally dissimilar to some twenty-first-century banks. The Quaker traders stood apart. Customers learned to rely on typical Quaker attributes: skilled bookkeeping, integrity, and honesty served up by sober Bible-reading men in plain dark clothes. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, local Quaker businesses began providing a counter in their offices that offered banking services. By the early nineteenth century, this practice had blossomed to seventy-four Quaker banks, one for almost every large city in Britain. James Barclay formed Barclays Bank in London, Henry Gurney established Gurney’s Bank in Norwich, Edward Pease formed the Pease Bank in Darlington, Lloyds Bank was started in Birmingham, Backhouse’s Bank grew across the north, Birkbeck flourished in Yorkshire, the Foxes set up in Falmouth, the Sparkes operated in Exeter, and many more. By the time Richard and George were born, Quaker banks, founded on a unique and trusted set of values, formed a solid network across the country.
As their banks and other businesses flourished, the Society of Friends continued to exchange views in Quaker meetings across the country, and the stoic independence, self-discipline, and questioning rebelliousness fashioned over a century in England was now channelled into the spirit of enterprise that fuelled the furnaces and mills of the Industrial Revolution.
But there was something else unique that guided Quakers in business from the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution. The original Christian and Brotherly Advices of 1738 also included a section on “Trading.” This highlighted key issues that a Friend might encounter in business and how to deal with them. It marks the foundation of business ethics built on truth, honesty, and justice—values that would form the basis of Quaker capitalism.
Central to the advice was that a Quaker must always honor his word:That none launch forth into trading and worldly business beyond what they can manage honourably and with reputation among the Sons of Men, so that they may keep their word with all Men; that their yea may prove their yea indeed, and their nay, may be nay indeed; for whatever is otherwise cometh of the Evil One . . . and brings Dishonour to the Truth of God.
Quakers entering into business were therefore encouraged to keep written accounts since accurate and thorough bookkeeping helped avoid errors of judgment.
It is advised that all Friends that are entering into Trade and have not stock sufficient of their own to answer the Trade they aim at be very cautious of running themselves into Debt without advising with some of their Ancient and Experienced Friends among whom they live.
Above all else, Quaker elders, many of whom were in tr
ade themselves, were keen “to Prevent the Great Reproach and Scandal” that might damage the reputation of the Society:It is advised . . . that all Friends concerned be very careful not to contract Extravagant Debts to the endangering and wronging of others and their families, which some have done to the Grieving Hearts of the upright, nor to break promises, contracts and agreements in the Buying and Selling or in any other lawful Affairs, to the injuring themselves and others, occasioning Strife and Contention and Reproach to Truth and Friends.
The local Monthly Meetings across the country were a forum for exchanging ideas, and Quakers were urged “to have a Watchful Eye over all their Members.” If they found anyone “Deficient in Discharging their Contracts and just Debts,” they were charged with “launching an Inspection into their Circumstances.” Should “the Transgressor” fail to heed honest advice, “Friends justifiably may and ought to testify against such offenders.” Accordingly, Friends collaborated in their local communities to help one another achieve high standards of integrity in trade.
As early as 1738, Quakers had a set of specific guidelines for business, which endeavored to apply the teachings of Christ to the workplace. Straight dealing, fair play, honesty, accuracy, and truth would form the basis of Quaker capitalism, and for those who fell short, there were rules of discipline. These guidelines were supplied to clerks in the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings and refined and formally updated every generation. They provide a snapshot of changing ethical concerns as the Industrial Revolution gathered momentum. For example, when the trading guidelines were updated in 1783 in the Book of Extracts, Friends were warned against a “most pernicious practice,” which could lead to “utter ruin”: the use of paper credit. This was considered “highly unbecoming,” falling far short of “that uprightness that ought to appear in every member of our religious society.” The 1783 Extracts warned unequivocally that this practice was “absolutely inconsistent with the truth.”
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