Introduction: Becoming Wealthy

The Shaw's endeavours helped to create a world of things and possessions, pleasures and comforts, for themselves as for others. John's working life was devoted to selling things that would make people's lives better and more convenient, if not actually more beautiful or elevated. He sold, for the most, the useful, practical things that the Black Country was so adept in producing. The nails and tacks that secured joints and fixtures, the pans and kettles with which to cook, the door furniture that allowed elegant egress, the japanned ware such as trays that served at sociable teas, even the mills that ground coffee for those soirees, the locks and keys that secured a burgeoning world of private goods, the coffin plates and handles that added a dignified gloss to a customer's journey to the final bourne.

Today we expect a successful entrepreneur to show an uncomplicated enjoyment of the material benefits that their work has brought them. John and Elizabeth, though, had a decidedly ambiguous relationship to this realm of ‘earthly things’ and the wealth that it generated. Elizabeth often feared that to turn her back on her conscience ‘in order to gratify the senses momentarily’ might lead in return to ‘days, weeks, and months of sorrow’. The corporeal world of things and pleasures was a dangerous one, strewn with tares and traps.