Britain was the birthplace of captains of industry, the rare type of people who amass enormous personal wealth whilst pushing their respective country ahead of the rest in wealth, technological advancement, innovation and progress. Those who create, build and invent, through sheer ambition, force and willpower, are the creators of civilization as we know it. If we cannot create the type of economy and society in which those select few can flourish, the future starts to look incredibly bleak.
The term ‘captain of industry’ was coined by British writer Thomas Carlyle in 1833, Carlyle was a critic of how the industrial revolution had changed the social fabric of Britain, a country of two nations, rich and poor. He warned of revolution if conditions did not change for the poor of the country. His writing is prophetic but not for the reasons you might think. Carlyle wrote this in 1833:
'In such periods of Social Decay, what is called an overflowing Population, that is a Population which, under the old Captains of Industry (named Higher Classes, Ricos Hombres, Aristocracies and the like), can no longer find work and wages, increases the number of Unprofessionals, Lackalls, Social Nondescripts; with appetite of utmost keenness, which there is no known method of satisfying. Nay, more, and perversely enough, ever as Population augments, your Captains of Industry can and do dwindle more and more into Captains of Idleness; whereby the more and more overflowing Population is worse and worse governed (shown what to do, for that is the only government): thus is the candle lighted at both ends; and the number of social Nondescripts increases in double-quick ratio.'
‘Captains of Industry can and do dwindle more and more into Captains of Idleness’, does this not apply to our current order in Britain today? Carlyle believed that the cure to the disease of poor conditions for the labouring class is a ‘real aristocracy’ who can lead the labouring class. He did not mean landowning, nepotistic or new working aristocracy who he called ‘a gang of industrial buccaneers and pirates’, but an ‘unclassed’ aristocracy that elevates not only their industry and personal wealth but their workers too.
The conditions of the poorest have, of course, improved beyond what anyone could have imagined 200 years ago, but Britain’s social hierarchy remains frustratingly similar and has actually gotten worse.
Captains of industry during the Industrial Revolution were great inventors, mechanics or engineers, technology drives progress, people such as Joseph Whitworth, the son of a teacher and minister. Whitworth created the accepted standard for screw threads which improved accuracy and industry standardisation, and one of the first rudimentary sniper rifles. He lived until the age of 83, an incredibly wealthy man he was a major philanthropist too, he supplied four six-ton blocks of stone from a Derbyshire quarry, for the lions of St George’s Hall in Liverpool, and he gave the equivalent of £11.6 million in today’s money to the government to bring science and industry closer together and fund scholarships.
Whitworth was a member of this ‘unclassed aristocracy’ that Carlyle wished to see, writing to him stating ‘Would to heaven that all or many of the captains of industry in England had a soul in them such as yours, and could do as you have done’.
Whitworth had a vested interest in the future of Britain, even after his death, his company merged with W.G. Armstrong & Mitchell Company in 1897 and the company would go on to produce armaments for the First World War and naval ships. Whitworth was the exemplar of a great British industrialist. There are many others, such as William Armstrong, who arguably created the world’s first global defence company, Joseph Chamberlain, Cecil Rhodes, and John Brown.
All of these men created wealth, they were not idle, they built, this is something Britain’s current idle aristocracy does not have. Take a look at the recent Sunday Times Rich List, ignoring the fact that the richest British citizen is an Indian immigrant, few on the list of 350 create, manufacture or engineer things, the predominant categories are property, finance, inheritance, and even they are dominated by people who weren’t born in Britain.
Britain’s ruling aristocracy consists of a parasitic landowning class, an ungrateful and shameless nepotistic class who catapult themselves into positions of power whilst lacking intelligence, and finally, a foreign ownership class that picks apart British business and often starves them of investment. This is Britain’s social hierarchy, with no vested interest in the nation, only concerned with retaining their own wealth, power and influence. Is it any wonder our country is declining, when you have a ruling class that doesn’t care, what do you expect?
Jim Ratcliffe who is second on the rich list is probably today’s greatest example of a great British industrialist. Ratcliffe is worth an estimated £30bn with his stake in the chemical conglomerate Ineos, he has described himself as ‘deeply pro-British’. Whilst he did move to Monaco and his recent venture into electric cars will not be built in Britain, he still employs thousands of Brits and his company is still headquartered in London.
But Britain’s billionaire pickings are slim compared to the United States. With magnates such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk being worth upwards of $150bn each. Britain’s billionaires are relatively poor. That is a bad thing. What it means is that Britain is not a good place to do business, it is not conducive to building a factory, as Tesla all but stated when they chose Berlin instead of Britain to build their European gigafactory. It is not conducive for tax purposes, it is not conducive for building not just a factory but anything really, regulation, red tape and bureaucracy hamstrings progress. It’s partly why the United States has remained the global epicentre for creating, people are relatively free to do it, and it’s encouraged. It’s why the average US citizen is far better off than the average Brit.
But it’s not just regulation, red tape and bureaucracy that holds Britain back, because it’s all-encompassing. Why would Tesla fight bureaucracy to build a factory in Britain when our energy costs are some of the most expensive in the world too (in part thanks to net Zero), it’s a point Rian Whitton noted in his article on Britain’s recently published semi-conductor strategy:
A large university sector means little when there is no lab space for commercially minded graduates to spill into. Energy costs are higher than anywhere else. Semiconductors require cheap electricity but also extensive water infrastructure. TSMC consumes 10% of Taiwan’s water annually. UK industries, particularly food & drink, and chemicals, are already facing demands to reduce water consumption as crumbling infrastructure puts strains on supply. The UK’s freshwater resources per capita are about half that of Taiwan. Our economic fundamentals preclude any serious industrial strategy, especially in something as hard as semiconductors. Aware of this, the document makes nearly no mention of building factories, lowering electricity costs, reforming planning, or reducing tax on capital expenditure.
So Britain is reduced to an economy of restricted and low quantity/quality property, pension funds, retail, foreign-owned businesses and a globalised finance sector. All of this is before we start discussing mass immigration which is making Britons poorer by keeping wages down and delaying any investment into automation, robotics or outdated business models.
If a country wants industrialists it has to create an environment for them to flourish, because when they flourish, so does the rest of the nation. They inspire in their creation, volition, wealth and power. You cannot restrict your economy so that industrial creation becomes near impossible and just expect it to come.
What can be done? Firstly, Britain needs a cultural change, the brightest children and students should be encouraged in education to pursue their own curiosity, ideas and creations, and ambition and entrepreneurship should be revered plus respected. Parents understandably want their children to have stable careers, but youth is exactly the time that you should be attempting to build something great like your own business or invention, as I wrote here in the context of scientists. Young Brits are also wasting prime years in useless universities when they could be using that money instead to launch a company or a rocket. The next Cecil Rhodes, the next Elon Musk etc are all in Britain, they just need the capital to realise their potential. Elevate building great things.
Secondly, Britain needs cheap energy, without it we have little chance to build the type of large industries I would hope for, such as the space industry, AI, defence, tech manufacturing, life sciences and medicine etc. This energy should primarily come through major building of nuclear power plants, renewable is just not reliable nor good enough yet.
Thirdly, individuals and employees should be rewarded for creating great things, not taxed to the point where it starts to feel like it’s not worth it.
Finally, get the government out of the way. Britain is run by incompetent managers and incompetent bureaucrats. There is no technocracy. Britain should make its sole goal to be the easiest place to set up a company and build whatever you want in the world. There should be a rocket landing pad in every city in Britain. Freedom is the end.
There are more things of course such as capital investment, government investment in certain industries and infrastructure spending. Another key proposal would be stricter foreign ownership rules, Britain should own our most fruitful companies and industries such as DeepMind, but I have outlined major proposals that I believe are significant.
Only when these things are done will Britain be able to resurrect its history of great British industrialists and therefore be able to crown itself once again, the most important nation in history.