Industrial Politics, Technological Expertise and Scientific Knowledge: The Birmingham Metal Button Dispute, 1795-1800

ABSTRACT After some years of poor trade, Birmingham’s button-making boomed when gilt buttons became fashionable in the mid-1790s. In this competitive market, disquiet about dishonest trading resulted in legislation to regulate the quality of gilding, but prosecutions for infringement of the Metal Button Act (1796) generated a politico-industrial dispute. Maxine Berg has attributed this to the imposition of controls on dependent sub-contractors by powerful manufacturers like Matthew Boulton. Sources in Birmingham Archives & Heritage, however, reveal the dispute centred on the technical and scientific issues of the accurate application and measurement of gilding, and, contrary to Berg’s assessment, was conducted between manufacturers of standing. The article discusses the economic context of the Act, the campaign to secure and implement it, the roles Boulton and others took, and the resulting dispute. It argues that the episode contributes to understanding the role of Birmingham and the west midlands in Britain’s industrial enlightenment.