A Family Business

A Family Business

In due time Charles Stanley brought both his 21-year old sons into the business: Charles Herbert in 1873 and Arthur John in 1874. At this point the firm was re-titled Charles Stanley and Sons, as it remained for more than fifty years.

The 1880s were a period of rapid development. The City of Glasgow Bank had collapsed in 1878, leaving, it was said, two hundred spinsters with an average investment of £240 each, to have to find £6,610 apiece. The scandal was addressed by the 1879 Companies Act which introduced limited liability. In 1884 the Stock Exchange was rebuilt as the great marble temple known as 'Gorgonzola Hall'. Capital poured outwards to the Empire and beyond. Records of the period show the international diversity of investment, reflecting the unchallenged position of London as the world's financial centre. True, New York was expanding at a faster rate, spurred on by the Civil War, the westward advance of the frontier and rapid industrialisation, but still it was overshadowed by London. The Stanleys themselves travelled - the firm's archives include Charles Herbert Stanley's passport of 1874, stamped with a German visa. Orders flowed in by telegram and then telephone. Typewriting machines were installed (operated exclusively by men) and letters were copied by the laborious 'wet cloth' process.

By the 1870s Charles Stanley was acting for a great range of banks - Backhouses in Darlington, Gurneys in Norwich, and above all, Barclays in Lombard Street, where, according to popular legend, he was their very first customer. By the 1890s we can be sure that he was acting for the forerunners of the National Westminster Bank. But always it is the Sheffield Bank, and its branches throughout the north of England, which appear and reappear in the records of the time.

On 3rd November 1886 the firm registered its telegraphic address as 'Chastons' - said to be the first telegraphic address ever filed. The original 1886 registration card is still held in the Post Office records. Not only were all telegrams to be delivered by hand, but a particular telegram boy was responsible for delivering them personally. They were to be brought to the office, by now at No 36 Cornhill, or to Stand No. 8 in the Stock Exchange, when the market was open. And complex secret codes were devised to convey dealing instructions in the most elaborate detail.

Telegrams were originally transmitted by the Eastern Telegraph Company, the 'Cable' part of Cable and Wireless.Nowadays, some of the firm's communications travel by optic fibre cable belonging to the Mercury network which, in an echo of that period, is operated by the same company.

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