Note 97 — Chapter IX · Birmingham—Matthew Boulton.

While on Snow-hill, Mr. Boulton’s business was principally confined to the making of buttons, shoe-buckles, articles in steel, and various kinds of trinkets. His designation was that of “toymaker,” as is shown by the following document copied from the original:—“Received of Matthew Boulton, toymaker, Snow-hill, three shillings and sixpence, for which sum I solemnly engage, if he should be chosen by lot to serve in the militia for this parish, at the first meeting for that purpose, to procure a substitute that shall be approved of. Birmingham, January 11, 1762, Henry Brookes, Sergt.” The Birmingham toymaker was, however, often a man doing a large business, producing articles of utility as well as ornament. Mr. Osler, the Birmingham manufacturer of glass beads and other toys, when examined before a Committee of the House of Commons many years since, astonished the members by informing them that trifling though dolls’ eyes might appear to be as an article of manufacture, he had once obtained an order for 500l. worth of the article. “Eighteen years ago,” said he, “on my first going to London, a respectable-looking man in the city asked me if I could supply him with dolls’ eyes; and I was foolish enough to feel half offended; I thought it derogatory to my dignity as a manufacturer to make dolls’ eyes. He took me into a room quite as wide, and perhaps twice the length of this, and we had just room to walk between the stacks, from the floor to the ceiling, of parts of dolls. He said, ‘These are only the legs and the arms; the trunks are below.’ But I saw enough to convince me, that he wanted a great many eyes.... He ordered various quantities, and of various sizes and qualities. On returning to the Tavistock Hotel, I found that the order amounted to upwards of 500l.... Calculating on every child in this country not using a doll till two years old, and throwing it aside at seven, and having a new one annually, I satisfied myself that the eyes alone would produce a circulation of a great many thousand pounds. I mention this merely to show the importance of trifles.”—Babbage, ‘Economy of Machinery and Manufactures,’ 243–5.