Thomas Attwood, a Birmingham banker, economist, and political reformer, died in 1856 at the age of seventy-two, relatively penniless and apparently little regarded. There were a few obituaries in local and national newspapers which commented on his achievements. But the funeral was a poor affair and it took his friends several months to scratch together a small sum of money to erect a statue in his memory. The response stood in sad contrast to his “great days” during the Reform Bill crisis of a quarter of a century earlier. Then, he had been lionized with the title “King Tom,” and...

Thomas Attwood was born on 6 October 1783, at Hawne House, in the parish of Halesowen, Shropshire. He was the third son of Matthias and Ann, née Adams, in a family of ten, seven of whom were boys.¹ The family, which could trace its lineage back to the Norman Conquest, had originally settled at Wolverly Court, Worcestershire, and had been among the first to sit in Parliament.² Not withstanding their eminent origins, however, the Attwoods’ future prominence in Birmingham and district was entirely due to their entrepreneurial skills as leaders in that remarkable series of events known as the industrial...

War with France had become commonplace by 1811. Expressions of fear and hope for campaigns past, present, and to come could be heard, but now that the danger of invasion was past, cautionary tales of far-flung places and events were told more for their symbolism and romance than for any information they supplied on the progress of the war. The one exception in regard to this general insensibility concerning public affairs was the economy. Birmingham’s fortunes had fluctuated wildly from slump to boom and back again in the wake of policy decisions made by a cabinet whose priority was the...

Thomas Attwood’s quiet return in the spring of 1813 marked a temporary retirement from public duty. The unpaid stewardship he had exercised for twelve months had caused some neglect of personal fortune. The final drive to defeat Napoleon, which had the industries of war, from guns to nails, working twenty-four hours a day, offered an opportunity to redress that recklessness.¹ The affairs of the bank naturally commanded his immediate attention, but the prospects for speculation created by inflationary pressures of the period were not overlooked as he became preoccupied with the task of making money. He was not the best...

Attwood’s appeals for state intervention in the financial marketplace contain a sense of urgericy which at times has a hysterical quality. Yet his everyday life at this time was, by choice, quiet and undemanding. Inconvenient excursions to neighbouring towns or London and other entanglements which might draw him away from his family were avoided. Certainly he was aware of the general discontent manifested in the periodic shouting in the streets by the sad victims of government indifference but he preferred to remain aloof. These were his contemplative years. The rhetoric of extremism to be found in his pamphlets received no...

Attwood, stunned by the rejection of his plea for common sense, spent much of the autumn of 1819 reevaluating his position. It had become clear that argument even when incontrovertible was not enough. It was at this time that he came to an important decision. The solitary pursuit of monetary reform through pamphlets and letters had to be replaced by collective action in a broadly based movement. To attract the level of support necessary to change the mind of Westminster a sustained campaign had to be mounted to exert consistent pressure. In such a campaign effective leadership was crucial and,...

Attwood’s sense of despair in the early summer of 1821 was profound. Letters to friends, allies, and theFarmers’ Journalcontinued to be written. There was even one short pamphlet. But there is a desultory air, a lack of conviction, which is not in keeping with the Old Testament prophet-style of the past. The desire to wash the whole business of currency and the plight of the country out of his life was undoubtedly hard to resist. Temporarily the efforts to build a consensus in the town itself held little appeal if there was to be no national goal to...

Once the shock of crisis had worn off, the theoretical debate about the gold standard and paper currencies revived. Remedies for the nation’s ills that had been in vogue five years earlier reappeared suitably embellished to reflect the newly gained experience. Bimetallism engaged the attention of many including Huskisson as an answer to problems created by short-run international adjustments - correctly identified as a primary cause of the previous year’s gold drain. Some, worried by the failure of so many country banks and the latent instability of a fractional reserve system, denounced the deflationary tendencies of Peel’s Act. Others, beginning...

The winter of 1829–30 was harsh: “the frost has now continued a month and the canal actually stopped three weeks, with every prospect of the present interruption continuing.”¹ Trade was so bad that barbers were said to charge by the dozen.² Subscription lists were opened in many towns to buy bread, beans, and blankets for the unemployed. But the poor harvest of 1829 had ensured that food was scarce and expensive, and in Birmingham the contributions were inadequate to feed all of the hungry. The neighbouring rural areas were in an equally bad state and the farming community viewed the future...

The general election had produced a House more independent than any since 1818, yet Wellington continued to act upon the assumption of Tory strength and to persist in a policy of non cooperation.¹ The Whigs, who had moved into more or less regular opposition during the summer, were convinced that the government was doomed despite their own losses at the polls.² There was general recognition that they had lost popular support by appearing too reticent in their endorsement of reform. It was clear that many people of property and education were against the present system. As their numbers grew many...

The adulation of Thomas Attwood reached embarrassing heights in the days after the parade. People pursued him in the streets, reverently trying to touch his clothes or begging to shake his hand. Outside his house at Harborne there was a constant vigil by countryfolk seeking a glimpse of their hero. Calls for the erection of a statue, for civic dinners in his honour, and for an immediate declaration of support in the forthcoming election were commonplace. Towns throughout the country tried to present him with testimonials and requests that he stand for this or that constituency littered his table. Legends...

Difficulties in the United States caused largely by speculative trading had begun to spill across the Atlantic in the autumn of 1836.¹ By November the iron producers in the midlands were experiencing problems. As usual when faced with falling order books, they started to cut back production, blowing out twenty furnaces in Staffordshire by Guy Fawkes Night. Several banks, particularly the newer joint stock companies which had been liberal in the provision of loans to merchants, similarly tried to reduce their commitments by refusing new loans and by calling for repayment of old ones.² Reduced demand for goods and the...

Attwood’s depression in June 1839 was understandable, but not all the portents were as ominous as he had persuaded himself they were. Melbourne’s position was weak; Shaw-Lefevre had been elected Speaker by only eighteen votes; and radicals of all persuasions might expect greater attention then they had heretofore enjoyed. Outside the Commons the divisions both within the ranks of the Chartists and in Birmingham certainly prevented any chance of a united front. Yet of all the leaders he continued to be the most universally admired. Riots in Birmingham in July underlined the growing propensity of the urban workers to violence,...