Blacketts

'The depth and breadth of Greg Finch's scholarship is extraordinary: he finds, interprets and explains exactly what was going on in a dynasty of extraordinary entrepreneurs in North-east England on the brink of the industrial revolution. But this is no dry, scholarly tome: he tells the tale with the pen of a poet.' Matt Ridley
 
In 1636 15-year-old William Blackett crossed the River Tyne from his modest home to start his apprenticeship in Newcastle. A devastating plague had just taken hold of the town, and the storm clouds of civil war were gathering. Yet within forty years he was a knight, MP, civic leader and the city's wealthiest merchant.
 
Based on meticulous new research, Greg Finch's flowing account of Blackett's life and times charts his dramatic rise, the opening up of the North Pennines lead industry, the creation of a huge business based on coal and lead - and what the next three generations did with it. The bold ambition, brilliance, rivalry and incompetence of colourful personalities all played their part in the management of an important dynastic concern.
 
This is a compelling story of one of Britain's leading ports, its mining and farming hinterland, sea-faring economy, politics, commercial culture and influential place in the nation during a turbulent century of change.
 
2022 winner of the Business Archives Council's Wadsworth Prize for outstanding contribution to British business history.
 
'the style is fluent and the characters well evoked ... impeccably researched' Northern History
 
'an incisive insight ... challenging others to match the meticulous and thoughtful way that he has written a family business history.' Business History