Revolutions in Business – Carl Chinn

Carl Chinn, MBE is an English historian, writer and broadcaster whose working life has been devoted to the study and popularisation of the city of Birmingham
 
In the admiring words of the French observer Faujas de Sant Fond in 1784, the activities of its manufactures and commerce made Birmingham one of the most curious places in England, whilst its people were infused with the genius of invention and mechanical skill of every kind. Those talents had transformed a small market town noted for the cutting tools of its blacksmiths into a booming industrial centre famed for its numerous and diverse industries. Later to be acclaimed as an immense workshop, a huge forge, and the city of a 1000 trades, Birmingham had broken free from its landlocked location deep in the middle of England to reach out across the seas. Soon there would be scarcely be anywhere populated where its wares would not be found.
The catalyst for this astounding achievement was a crucial interlocking of commercial f...