Winners and losers
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (247) summarises the key findings and themes explored in the third quarter’s articles. The theme consisted of local commerce. Subjects covered commercial success and failure, as well as their impact on local society.
Victorian Bournemouth (247): success
Corporate
The fabrics’ business bustled its way to become an important component within the local economy. Increasing numbers of people found employment here as the category spread into the suburbs. Also, it drew more women into the economy. Competition introduced new fabrics, induced specialisation amongst retailers, and changed consumers’ shopping experience. The opening of a huge department store by Plummer, Roddis, and Tyrrell summarised the category’s changes under one roof in spring 1898. National banks had arrived in Bournemouth over time, but smaller, local companies still existed. Adverse trading conditions had brought difficulties for this latter category. This provided an opportunity for successful, national banking networks to enter Bournemouth’s financial market. This indicates how Bournemouth had become an attraction for large, national enterprises. They accepted that the resort had become a necessary location for them to establish a branch. Thus, local customers, for both fabrics and banking, had greater choice.
Small business
Bournemouth’s Steam Laundry demonstrated how a local company could sustain success over a prolonged period. The analysis of this company suggested that financial prudence, effective marketing, and worker safety contributed to a robust business model that could withstand the pressures of competition and economic fluctuations. Furthermore, the long-term management style of Robert and Catherine Catt made the company a showcase for how employee satisfaction and commercial profit could co-exist. As a proactive manager, Robert Catt combined attention to detail, commitment to safety, regular innovation, and positive media relations. The Catt family connected their family, friends, and employees into one network. This created a supportive and harmonious workplace environment, benefiting all network members, whatever their social position. The success of this approach appears in the family’s management of the firm. This extended over at least two generations and lasted several decades. This company compared well with larger, unsuccessful enterprises.
Victorian Bournemouth (247): failure
Commercial crashes
As noted above, local banks or regional networks experienced commercial difficulties during the 1890s. As a result, these companies experienced significant changes or disappeared. Similar conditions applied within two parts of the transport business: steam packet tourism and bus services. In the former, local interests thought an opportunity existed for a Bournemouth company to challenge others based elsewhere along the south coast. They also saw it as an emblem of local pride. The company attracted many local investors, whose meetings sometimes ranked pride above commercial sense. Many of the directors had little experience in the category. The company experienced losses at sea, inadequate financial control, and economic downturns. It did not survive. Severe competition also hindered local bus companies in achieving success, if not dominance. These attracted local investors. Directors refused to acknowledge the fundamental threat posed by electric tram services, which soon swept them away.
Fraud
One article investigated events surrounding the bankruptcy of draper Stephen Ely. It uncovered a web of dubious supply and financial management. The resulting trial left unanswered whether Ely’s involvement consisted of commercial failure or also extended into evading insolvency. The analysis uncovered a murky world of mysterious London characters who lived on the edge of sharp practice, if not illegality. For example, Ely claimed never to have met the man to whom he transferred his assets, his stratagem to evade bankruptcy. However, soon after, the business went up for sale at £5,000, a price well below the value of his buildings. At the same time, his shadowy group of financial advisers vanished into the London fog. Probable fraud also characterised the brief existence of a branch of the Perfect Thrift mutual savings company in Bournemouth. After a while, commercial difficulty occurred. Some managers encountered court trials; others disappeared abroad.
Victorian Bournemouth (247): social impacts
Positive
Victorian England offered few opportunities for single women to attain self-support. Some worked in dairies, others in laundries, often operating in their homes. For most, however, domestic service offered the only way for single women to work. Having a servant marked an important step toward social success for ambitious families. Many such households existed in Bournemouth. The town also contained much larger establishments belonging to wealthy and privileged people. They employed retinues of servants, including many females. Two new opportunities, however, emerged during the late Victorian period. First, women from impoverished, but respectable backgrounds could work as companions to older, wealthier single women, widows or spinsters. Second, retailers began to include women in their workforces. Draperies became important employers of single women. They became counter sales staff, once a male preserve. Such employment, although still service, offered more variation in context, greater opportunity, and a taste of glamour.
Negative
During the Victorian period, labourers became more organised to better their wages and work conditions. The process became an important subject for newspaper publishers. The Tolpuddle Martyrs had illustrated this media opportunity. Towards the end of this period, organised labour became more proactive, if not aggressive. Strikes occurred, during which the relevant union would provide financial support to its members who had quit employment to obtain better conditions. Most activity occurred in London or the country’s other urban concentrations of labouring people. In the 1890s, however, a carpenters’ strike occurred in Bournemouth. The town’s economy had grown much through construction work. This had created a group of successful builders who took a leading role in Bournemouth’s society and civic control. They faced down the local carpenters, striking to win better pay. Although supported by London, the strike foundered when employers closed ranks. Soon, it evaporated, leaving the carpenters unsuccessful.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (247) has discussed the main subjects covered by the last quarter’s articles. They dealt with the overall subject of commercial life. It provided examples of success and failure among local companies. It highlighted changes within the scale of enterprise, much of it now conducted by companies operating on a national scale. Changes also occurred because of technological improvements. This created challenges, which Bournemouth companies did not always overcome. Changes in commerce also created opportunities for individuals to advance. Some proved successful (shop girls), others less so (carpenters’ strike).
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