Trading places | 3 December 2011

Thirty years ago Sir Keith Joseph, portrayed by Sir Ian Gilmour, a fellow minister, as owning ‘a Rolls-Royce mind without a chauffeur’, sent a newly published book to every Cabinet colleague. Most groaned, some murmured oaths, and a lucky few skimmed it. The book was English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit (1850-1980) by Martin Weiner.

The author, like Correlli Barnett before him, assailed Victorian and Edwardian entrepeneurs and inventors for ignoring family business. Scores and scores of tycoons yearned to be assimilated into the landed establishment by spurning their own mills and factories. They denied the infernos of noise and squalor the capital investment required for new technology. Though driven by the non-conformist work ethic and responsible for making Britain the first industrial nation, they venerated land-owning and rural nostalgia. Social recognition was achieved at the expense of generating jobs and further prosperity in cities.

The Marshall family from Leeds, founders of the world’s greatest mills, acquired Lake District estate after estate; and in the twinkling of eyes daughters married old money eroding fast.