This is a collection of sixteen relatively short papers prepared for a 2009 conference marking the bicentennial of Mathew Boulton's death. Boulton was an entrepreneurial businessman and engineer of the first industrial revolution, most famous for his collaboration with James Watt in constructing innovative steam engines more powerful and efficient than the then standard Newcomen. Boulton also made seminal contributions in designing equipment and processes enabling the mass production of coins, which he did in the tens of millions for the British and other governments, including that of the United States. Other lines of business included silversmithing and the production of a variety of metallurgical products including candlesticks, serving dishes, and what were called at the time “toys”— metal buckles, buttons, and other ornamental objects. He rounded out his product line with forays into mechanical painting. Most of his enterprise was conducted at an impressive factory he built in Birmingham—the Soho manufactory.

The essays provide a variety of perspectives on Boulton's life and career. The book is not limited to technical aspects of what he produced and how he did it, but also treat his approach to marketing and management, as well as his place in bourgeois and enlightenment culture (see particularly the essay by Peter M. Jones). Readers of this JOURNAL should however be forewarned. These are papers by historians for historians. Sources are archival, the data are almost entirely qualitative, and to the degree there are hypotheses posed and tested, they are mostly historiographical. Will the book be of interest to those who consider themselves economic historians? The record on this score is mixed. Students of the history of technology will appreciate Jim Andrew's essay on Boulton, Watt, and Wilkinson, in particular Andrew's appeal to thermodynamic theory to figure the efficiency gains, relative to Newcomen, of the new engines, which featured separate condensers, double-action, and more closely fitting pistons and cylinders.

George Demidowicz, on the Soho manufactory, makes the early production of steam engines more concrete by locating it in physical space. He also gives insight into the challenges of industrial engineering using hybrid water power and steam systems. It was intriguing to see twenty-first century metallurgical analysis figure in historical work of this nature. Peter Northover and Nick Wilcox study the trace elements in copper coins produced in the Soho manufactory by Boulton, as well as those coined using similar British suppliers by the United States Mint. They identify a distinctive metallurgical signature in items produced from British copper, including U.S. and British coins, and bolts and sheathing used in British warships.

We see the use of advanced scientific methods as well in Barbara Fogarty's investigation of what were the exact technical processes involved in Boulton's venture into mechanical reproductions of paintings (they remain something of a mystery).

Of the two essays on Boulton's attempts to establish by Parliamentary Act a Birmingham Assay office, that by Sally Baggott is the more illuminating. She uses Gramsci's concept of cultural hegemony by way of Raymond Williams to illuminate the political conflicts between Boulton and the London silversmiths over this effort. Boulton prevailed, attesting to his political astuteness, how well connected he was, and the enduring efforts of interest groups to protect monopoly rents. Two essays by Joseph Melling and Sue Tungate explore aspects of worker management in Boulton's enterprises. The picture that emerges is not one of uniformity of system, but rather an eclectic mix of piece rate, salaried, and partnership arrangements. Students of contract theory could find some of this material of interest. Preoccupation with protecting trade secrets, reflected in these essays as well as that by Irina Gouzévitch on Augustin Betancourt, the Spanish engineer and alleged industrial spy, will also strike a familiar chord among twenty first century readers.

Taken together, these essays demonstrate that a successful eighteenth-century industrial entrepreneur needed more than mastery of engineering. He needed to be a skilled promoter (marketer) with an understanding of different distribution channels as well as someone effective at managing a range of relations with employees, suppliers of raw materials (such as copper for coinage), selling agents, and legislators and regulators. Proficiency in accounting and finance was presumably also extremely beneficial. We should not overlook, however, that Boulton inherited his father's metallurgical business and, through a serendipitous and lucrative marriage to his (deceased) first wife's sister, began his career with a substantial financial headstart. That is not to diminish his accomplishments; lesser men might have squandered the endowment. But his inheritance and marriages did give him advantages over many of his compatriots.

Val Loggie's disquisition on portraits and prints of Boulton gives insight into middle-class consumption of imagery, as well as their use in self-promotion, but will be of relatively little interest to economic historians, other than those specialized in the history of consumption and perhaps marketing.

The issue of what exactly Boulton contributed comes up in Jennifer Tann's essay on his role as an innovator as well as in David Philip Miller's on whether or not Boulton was a scientist. I am less interested in this latter question. Let me know what the individual did (these essays give us some insight); the label for me is less consequential. Malcolm Dick's concluding paper on Boulton's funeral and how he as commemorated provides evidence of his contemporary impact, but will be of most interest to a cultural historian.

Overall, the book enriches a micro-level perspective on the British industrial revolution in the tradition of entrepreneurial history.