In the autumn of 1779, when the American Revolutionary War began to shift with France's entry into the conflict, Joshua Wedgwood learned that his second son, Jos, had fallen ill at boarding school. He even risked passing through the rioting crowds of Cotton Town to visit his children.
Yet when he arrived, he discovered that Jos's illness was not one that medicine could cure.
Closed boarding schools could have all sorts of problems. Not everyone was as fortunate as Harry Potter.
As a father, he made what he believed was the best choice for his children: he brought them home and hired tutors to teach them the subjects he considered useful.
Wedgwood was also an employer, and he knew very well what kind of people he needed. Of course, sons were different from employees; they were meant to inherit his family business. Yet Joshua Wedgwood himself had never expected that his factory would be inherited by his daughter Sukey, whom he had sent to London.
That school had been founded by Boulton, who could be regarded as the "king" of Birmingham.
To Wedgwood, Staffordshire was a city of pottery. Before setting out for London to lobby, he had written a pamphlet—"On the Question of Pottery Workers Serving Foreign Manufacturers." Britain's low tariffs had attracted many imports and made the business of bank drafts flourish, but they could also bring disadvantages.
In short, he felt that manufacturers had little voice in Parliament, while politicians focused on party struggles remained indifferent to reform. Throughout the 1780s, a game of "cat and mouse" was popular. Many countries believed that obtaining foreign knowledge or models was fair play, even a patriotic act, so commercial and industrial espionage never ceased.
The benefits brought by Britain's first Industrial Revolution were obvious. The powerful treated machinery and