Page nine

Preface
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Appendix

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As the leading man in his line of business, T. Richardson was examined before the “Bullion Committee” of 1810, and his evidence (as commented upon, for instance, by Mr. Bagehot in his book on “Lombard Street”) is recognised as an important document in the history of British Finance. Without going into technical details which would be out of place here, it may be stated that Richardson, Overend and Gurney, in the early days of their business were bill-brokers, pure and simple. Their duty was to bring together the country broker in the Agricultural district, who wanted to employ his money, and the London or Liverpool merchant, who wanted to get his customers’ bills discounted. They used their best judgment and the wonderful knowledge of the business world which they had acquired, to choose the best and soundest bills for their country friends who had entrusted them with the task, and they were no doubt sorely distressed when any of these bills were not met at maturity, but they did not guarantee payment. They were thus not bill-discounters but bill-brokers, and they were paid only by the commission which they received from the owners of the bills.

In later times, probably before Thomas Richardson's retirement from the firm, the practice had changed. The bill-broker became himself the buyer and seller of bills on a stupendous scale: his endorsement appeared on them and he was liable for their ultimate payment, and thus the way was prepared for the colossal fortunes which by wise money-dealing, “the corner-house” had accumulated in 1850, and for the colossal disaster which, through unwise money-dealing, overtook them in 1866, long after Thomas Richardson, John Overend and Samuel Gurney had disappeared from the scene.

So much as this it seemed necessary to say, in order that the significance of Thomas Richardson, as one of the chief figures in the financial history of the century, might be fully realised. But at the time that we have to make his acquaintance be is no longer a power in Lombard Street. He has retired from business many years, with a considerable fortune, and lives chiefly in his comfortable, but not ostentatious, house at Stamford Hill, where his pond, when frozen over, is placed liberally at the disposal of the Friends’ School in his neighbourhood, and has witnessed the first painful endeavours of many a boyish “Friend” to learn the art of skating. His penetrating glance into the conditions of commercial prosperity has enabled him to discover some of the most fruitful fields of industrial enterprise. In conjunction with his relatives, the Peases, he has helped to develop the marvellous invention of George Stephenson; he is a director of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, and he is also one of the original “Middlesbrough Owners.” Martha Richardson, the partner of his life for more than forty years, is in failing health and the bracing air of the North is recommended for her malady. This fact and the natural return of the old man to his boyhood's first love, drew him back towards Ayton, and had something to do with the condition which is attached to his generous gift to the School.

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