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Marketing Methods in the International Steam Engine Market: The Case of Boulton and Watt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

Jennifer Tann
Jennifer Tann
Affiliation:
The University of Aston
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Extract

James Watt patented his improved steam engine in 1769 but, as is well known, lacked the capital and other facilities to exploit the patent. It was not until the commencement of his partnership with Matthew Boulton in 1775, after Boulton had successfully obtained an Act of Parliament extending the patent to 1800, that the technical development and commercial exploitation of his engine could be effected. The first engines were all reciprocating ones operating pumping and, later, blowing machinery. But, partly in response to Boulton's insistence that demand for factory engines would escalate, Watt developed and in 1782 patented his rotative engine.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , June 1978 , pp. 363 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1978

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References

1 See, for example, SirRoll, Eric, An Early Experiment in Industrial Organisation (London, 1930 and 1968)Google Scholar; Lord, John, Capital and Steam.Power, 1750–1800 (London, 1923 and 1966)Google Scholar; Robinson, Eric and Musson, A. E., James Watt and the Steam Revolution (Rath, 1969)Google Scholar.

2 Tann, Jennifer, “Suppliers of Parts: The Relationship between Boulton and Watt and the Suppliers of Engine Components, 1775–1795,” Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society Transactions, 86 (1974), 167–77Google Scholar.

3 Ibid., p. 176.

4 E.g., Navy Board, the Post Office, shipping companies, and the larger Lancashire cotton firms.

5 Tann, Jennifer and Breckin, M. J., “The International Diffusion of the Watt Engine,” Economic History Review, 31 (Nov. 1978)Google Scholar.

8 McKendrick, Neil, “Josiah Wedgwood: An Eighteenth-Century Entrepreneur in Salesmanship and Marketing Techniques,” Economic History Review, 12 (Aug. 1960), 408–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Robinson, Eric, “Boulton and Fothergill, 1762–1782, and the Birmingham Export of Hardware,” University of Birmingham Historical Journal, 7 (1959), 60–79Google Scholar.

8 Tann & Breckin, “Diffusion of the Watt Engine.” In the present paper the international market excludes the West Indies, for this was regarded by Boulton and Watt less as a foreign market than an extension of their British market.

9 Robinson, Eric, “James Watt and the Law of Patents,” Technology and Culture, 13 (1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 For a discussion of the extent of “piracy” in Lancashire see, Musson, A. E. and Robinson, Eric, Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution (Manchester, 1969), pp. 393–426Google Scholar.

11 Although published accounts of how the French arret was obtained are somewhat conflicting the best versions are in Henderson, W. O., Britain and Industrial Europe, 1750–1870 (2nd ed.; Leicester, 1965), p. 44Google Scholar; Payen, Jacques, Capital et machine à vapeur au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1969), pp. 102–05Google Scholar; Lord, John, Capital and Steam Power, 1750–1800 (2nd ed.; London, 1966), pp. 208–10Google Scholar.

12 See, e.g., M. Boulton to Panchard, 2 April 1777, Boulton & Watt Mss, Birmingham Reference Library. All documents referred to hereafter are in this collection unless prefixed A.O., in which case they are in the M. Boulton papers, formerly in Birmingham Assay Office but now also in Birmingham Reference Library.

13 Payen, Capital, p. 104.

14 M. Boulton to Magellan, 12 Oct. 1778; ibid., Oct. 1778, A.O., Mi 58; ibid., Oct. 1778, A.O., Mi 59; Jary to B. & W. (Boulton and Watt), 12 Dec. 1778, A.O., JS9.

15 Memorial delivered by B. & W. to M. Genet at Versailles, 27 Nov. 1786, A.O., Gi 159.

16 Jary to B. & W., 1 Oct. 1778, A.O., J.58.

17 B. & W. to Perier, 1 May 1782.

18 Memorial delivered to M. Genet.

19 Genet to M. Boulton, 30 July 1783, A.O., Gi 152.

20 The Russian Government. M. Boulton to J. Watt, 26 Jan. 1779.

21 M. Boulton to J. Watt, 3 July 1778. My italics.

22 Van Liender also assisted the British engineer William Blakey to obtain an exclusive privilege in the Netherlands; Van Liender to M. Boulton, 25 Sept. 1778, A.O., L2 6; Van Liender to J. Watt, 4 Oct. 1785; ibid., 29 Nov. 1785; J. Watt to M. Boulton, 9 Nov. 1785, A.O., Watt (4) 41.

23 Van Liender to J. Watt, 13 Jan. 1786; Contract, 8 Nov. 1786, Box 41.

24 Magellan to B. & W., 15 June 1784.

25 J. T. Dillon was initial intermediary.

26 Don Pasquale Mensa y March to M. Boulton, 20 Oct. 1789, A.O., Mi 232; B. & W. to Mensa, 28 July 1789; B. Bewicke to M. Boulton, 21 July 1790, A.O., B2 240; Agreement with Mensa, 1789, Box 41.

27 Mensa to J. Watt, 23 May 1789.

28 Memorial to the King of Spain, n.d., Box 36.

29 Agreement with Mensa.

30 J. Watt to B. Bewicke, 8 Oct. 1789; B. & W. to B. Bewicke, 7 May 1791. By 1792 the Spanish merchants in partnership with Mensa had quarrelled: “Thus ends all ye dons fine schemes & ye contracts he made with you.” B. Bewicke to B. & W., 2 Mar. 1792, A.O., B2 241.

31 Baron Vay de Vaja to M. Boulton, 1 Nov. 1790, A.O., V S2; Sir J. Banks to M. Boulton, n.d., A.O., Banks; M. Boulton to Sir J. Banks, 22 Nov. 1790, A.O., Banks.

32 B. & W. to W. von Kempelin, Jan. 1791, A.O., K 69.

33 Boulton stated that a privilege was essential before B. & W. would agree to send engines to Prussia. B. & W. to Stein, 24 Nov. 1787, A.O., S3 118.

34 J. T. Dillon refers to an exclusive privilege for B. & W. in Naples: Dillon to M. Boulton, 15 Oct. 1788, A.O., Bi 53.

35 Carroll W. Pursell, Jr., Early Stationary Steam Engines in America (Washington, 1969), pp. 16–17.

38 M. Boulton to James Rumsey, 14 Aug. 1788.

37 B. & W. to R. Barclay, 22 July 1788.

38 M. Boulton to Sir J. Banks, 22 Nov. 1790, A.O., Banks.

39 J. T. Dillon to M. Boulton, 15 Oct. 1788, A.O., B.53.

40 Three only: 1789, 31 h.p., Becconais, flour mill at Nantes; 1791, 16 h.p., Beguyere & Co., use unknown, countermanded; 1822, 53 h.p., Ourscamp & Co., iron rolling. None of these orders was obtained either as a direct result of B. & W.'s arrêt nor of their subsequent French tour.

41 Perier of the Paris Waterworks Co. began engine production shortly after having purchased his Watt engines, for instance. Boulton and Watt made no attempts to pursue him in the French courts.

42 P. Capper, Jr. to M. Boulton, 24 Nov. 1777, A.O., CI 117.

43 A. Collins to M. Boulton, 27 May 1787, A.O., C3 17.

44 Lord Macartney to M. Boulton, 9 Mar. 1792, A.O., Macartney 1.

45 “Paris Journey,” by B. & W., 1786. A.O., P I 19. J. Watt to J. Watt, Jr., 1 Feb. 1787, MIV, Watt 3.

46 W. Wilkinson's report on the iron trade in France, 1787, Box 26.

47 J. Baumgartner (of the firm Baumgartner & Hoofstetter) to M. Boulton, 8 May 1787, A.O., B1 257.

48 Z. Walker, Jr., Boulton's nephew.

49 There was, of course, also a long history of Russian anglophilia, besides a number of manufacturing concerns that employed British merchants, engineers, and mechanics at various levels. Cross, Anthony, “The British in Catherines Russia, A Preliminary Survey,” in Garrard, J. G., ed., The Eighteenth Century in Russia (Oxford, 1973)Google Scholar; Robinson, Eric, “The Transference of British Technology to Russia: A Preliminary Enquiry,” in RadclifFe, Barrie, ed., Great Britain and Her World, 1750–1914, Essays in Honour of W. O. Henderson (Manchester, 1975)Google Scholar.

50 Z. Walker, Jr., to B. & W., 4 April 1805, Box 20.

51 Ibid.

52 He did not, however, as there were fears for his personal safety on account of his Jacobinism. J. Watt to J. Watt, Jr., 1 Dec. 1793, M IV.

53 M. Boulton to Z. Walker, Jr., 6 Nov. 1802, A.O., Z. Walker, 45.

54 Z. Walker, Jr. to M. Boulton, 23 June 1803, A.O., Z. Walker, 56.

55 B. & W. to Thebaud Jalaber & Co., 8 Sept. 1791.

56 Fermin de Tastet to B. & W., 27 Oct. 1791.

57 Sir W. Hamilton to M. Boulton, 31 July 1792, A.O., Hl 71.

58 2 gns. a week, on average, in the 1790s.

59 Logan was given 50 gns. on completing the erection of one foreign engine.

60 J. Watt, Jr. to Rev. A. Oughterson, 10 Jan. 1817. The mechanic was Malcolm Logan.

61 J. Watt, Jr. to C. Matthews, Oct. 1794.

62 H. Van Liender to J. Watt, 2 Oct. 1794 (Box 36); N. I. Roosevelt to B. & W., 5 Feb. 1800, A.O., R2 119. The mechanic was James Smallman.

63 J. Southern to Logette & Pileur, 22 Nov. 1793.

64 M. Boulton to B. Tschoffen, 21 Feb. 1796, A.O., T2 71.

65 J. Watt, Jr. to W. Creighton, 13 Sept. 1816 (Box 33).

66 For a detailed discussion of these points see Jeremy, David J., “Damming the Flood: British Government Efforts to Check the Outflow of Technicians and Machinery, 1780–1843,” Business History Review, 51 (1977), 1–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67 B. Huntsman to M. Boulton, 2 Aug. 1789, A.O., H3 235.

68 A. Weston to B. & W., 21 May 1792.

69 B. & W. to M. Logan, 30 July 1794; B. & W. to Thebaud Jalaber & Co., 8 Sept. 1791; B. & W. to Bartholmi, 3 Aug. 1791.

70 A 44 inch cylinder 8 foot stroke pumping engine for a coal mine in Brittany, ordered by Jary; two 63 inch cylinders 9 foot stroke pumping engines for the Paris Waterworks, ordered by Perier. A.O., Jl 1778–1779; A.O., PI 1779.

71 J. Wilkinson to J. Watt, 10 May 1779, Box 20; M! Boulton to J. Watt, 8 July 1779, Box 20; ibid., 17 Aug. 1779, Box 20; J. Watt to Lord Dartmouth, n.d., Box 1; draft Petition to King in Council, 1779, A.O., Pi 205.

72 J. Watt to Jary, 9 Jan. 1781.

73 Parts of blowing cylinders and forge machinery were sent to Spain in 1791 described as engine parts and shipped via a different port from the rest of the engine. J. Watt to Fermin de Tastet, 17 June 1791.

74 M. Boulton to I. Smirnove, 2 Oct. 1798, A.O., S2 79.

75 M. Boulton to S. Bourne, 25 June 1804, A.O., B4 149; Birmingham Memorial, 1800, A.O., Russian Mint 1; M. Boulton to Count de Wedel, 20 July 1804, A.O., W2 10.

76 G. & E. Wolfe to B. & W., 10 July 1787, Box 4.

77 M. Boulton to Sir J. Banks, 13 Feb. 1787, A.O., Banks; Sir J. Banks to M. Boulton, Feb. 1787, A.O., Banks.

78 He assumed a title, bribed a Soho employee to demonstrate forbidden parts of the engine, and finally decoyed an engine man from Cornwall. J. Watt to J. Watt, Jr., 13 Aug. 1786, MIV, Watt 3; M. Boulton to J. Watt, 20 Jan. 1779, Box 20 B6.

79 J. Watt to J. Watt, Jr., 13 Aug. 1786, MIV, Watt 3.

80 A. Weston to B. & W., 21 May 1792. See also Mathias, Peter, “Skills and the Diffusion of Innovations from Britain in the 18th Century,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 25 (1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 J. Wilkinson to J. Watt, 1 Oct. 1778, Box 20; M. Boulton to J. Wilkinson, 20 April 1777, A.O., Wilkinson 71; J. Motteux to M. Boulton, 4 Feb. 1784, A.O., Motteux 34.

82 M. Boulton to J. Watt, 6 Jan. 1779 (Box 20), see also B. & W. to A. Weston, 26 Feb. 1792.

83 Portf. 54; J. Watt to J. Rennie, 11 Mar. 1789; “Mr. Rennie's Complete List of Materials for Mr. Mensa,” 1789 (Box 36).

84 Neethrop & Harris to B. & W., 4 Nov. 1794, Box 4.

85 B. & W. to Thebaud, Jalaber & Co., 14 April 1791.

86 15 mint engines totalling 344 h.p. were sold to five different foreign mints between 1775 and 1825.

87 M. R. Boulton, for instance, altered the East India Co. s designs for both the Calcutta and Bombay mints to ensure a logical progress of materials through the works. Portfs. 707, 708.

88 M. Boulton to Smirnove, 20 Feb. 1798, A.O., Russian Mint 2.

89 M. Boulton to Count Woronzow, 20 Feb. 1797, A.O., Russian Mint 2.

90 G. Weston to M. Boulton, 29 May 1783, A.O., Wi 121.

91 A. J. Cabrit to M. Boulton, 29 Aug. 1775, A.O., Cl 4.

92 S. Broome to M. Boulton, 6 Oct. 1789, A.O., B5 104.

93 M. Boulton to Monnerons, 17 Nov. 1791, A.O., Monnerons 26.

94 N. I. Roosevelt to B. & W., 5 Feb. 1800, A. O., R2 119; N. I. Roosevelt to B. & W., 5 Feb. 1800, A.O., America, 23.

95 Col. Macormick to M. Boulton, 27 Mar. 1787, A.O., Ml 3.

96 Boulton stressed the importance of “it not being known that I am a partner [or] it may be very injurious to me in this country.” M. Boulton to Monnerons, 17 Nov. 1791, A.O., Monnerons 26.

97 See, e.g., the case of Boulton v. Autran & Ador fils. Autran explained: “Our reasons for building our factory were exactly those which made you oppose it.” Autran to M. Boulton, 8 June 1770, A.O., A 254.

98 “An Indegested Plan for Establishing a Rolling and Coining Project at Paris with Monnerons, 1791,” A.O., Monnerons.

99 See, e.g., the list in MIV.

100 J. Watt to M. Boulton, 21 Aug. 1789, Box 36; Tariff of Rotative Engines agreed upon with Mr. Mensa, 1 Oct. 1789, Box 36.

101 E.g., French engine prices: 31 h.p. £1,721 (1789), 16 h.p. £990 (1791); Swedish engine prices: 8 h.p. £575, 9 h.p. £620 (1798).

102 I. Poli to M. Boulton, 26 Nov. 1788, A.O., P2 56.

103 J. Watt to M. Boulton, 20 Jan. 1789.

104 J. Watt, Jr. to Southern, 18 June 1811, Box 33.

105 J. Watt, Jr. to B. & W., 26 April 1825, Box 33.

106 J. Watt, Jr. to W. Creighton, 14 Jan. 1821, Box 33.

107 J. Wilkinson to B. & W., 14 April 1778, Box 20.

108 B. & W. to J. Tencote, 8 July 1791.

109 J. Watt, Jr. to J. Rennie, 22 May 1789.

110 A.O., Z. Walker, Jr., 218. But this sum was charged to the M. Boulton Mint Co., not to Boulton and Watt.

111 Tann & Breckin, “Diffusion of the Watt Engine.”

112 Z. Walker, Jr. to M. Boulton, 15 Feb. 1804, A.O., Russian Mint I.

113 £76,000 was received for Cornish mine engines between 1780 and 1791, for instance, but this market was of little importance later. Furthermore, particularly after 1800 (but in the earlier years as well), Boulton and Watt experienced keen competition in the domestic market.

114 M. Boulton to J. Watt, 7 Feb. 1769, A.O., Watt.