A MANCHESTER MERCHANT

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 344, 20 February 1889, Page 6

A MANCHESTER MERCHANT

The Wonderful Life of John RyJands. iN.John Rylan'ds/head of the famous 'firm' of Rylands and Sons (Limited), there passed away in the early hours oi'Tuesday morning the chief of probably the largest manufacturing and mercantile concern in the entire world, and a man whose own history forms a most interesting ' chapter in the romance of trade. Not only ' many a monarch bufc many a State has an income which, compared with the annual 'receipts, of John Rylands, would fall almost into insignificance. The transactions of 'the firm run into not only hundreds of thousands, but millions. The chief offices and warehuuses in Manchester occupy the greater paro of four streets, the various blocks being connected by means of bridges ; there are extensive branch establishments in other parts of the city,' while no fewer than 'seventeen cotton mills and factories in different towns in Lancashire have been brought into this gigantic concern. All this, too, has been practically the work of John Rylands, and h»a grown out of the smallest of beginnings. He was a born business man, as shown by an incident which occurred in his schoolboy day&. He went to a, sale one day, and, seeing that a bundle of trinkots was going cheap, bought it with tho pence he had in hi& pocket. No sooner hud he got the trinkets than ho began to dispose of them to hi& schoolmates and others, realising from them a larger sum than ho had ever possessed before. This was the first stroke of business done by the man who, at the age of eighty-one, has left behind the biggest undertaking that any one ' house ' has ever got together. Bufc the boy was not content with his first profits. On the advice of an old nurse of the family he engaged her and her husband to do weaving for him, paying him out oi the funds he had in hand, and the result was the realisation -, ot still further substantial profits.

The Bag of Samples. There are surely not many men who can boast that they wero manufacturers while ohey were still at school ! A few years afterwards John Rylands took a step further, for at- eighteen ho entered into partnership with his eldest brother Joseph, and took possession of a small colten mill at Wigan. Here the manufacturing business was carried on under the superintendence of Joseph Rylands, while John, with his bags full of samples, went about on horseback, after the manner of ' commercials ' of those times, ' from town to town for a wide circle, embracing nob only Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire, bub North Wales as well, in order to obtain customers for the goods his 1 brother was making* at home. So well did the business succeed that the father, Joseph Rylandp, senior, oflered to become a partner in the concern, and pub more capital into it. This was done, and the great firm of v Joseph Rylands and Sons ' was thus fairly floated. In 1822 a branch establishment was opened in New High street, Manchester, at the back of Market-street, and close to Piccadilly, but, singularly enough, an entire week elapsed before the first customer put in an appearance. As time went on the one house swallowed up other houses, then the whole street, and then two or three more streets adjoining. In the meantime, John Rylands succeeded to the sole control of the concern by the retirement of his brother in 1840 and the death of his father in 1847, and he threw himself with greater zeal than ever into the expansion of the concern. Mill after mill was erected or bought, and one branch or one industrial establishment was added to,anothei, so that the firm were able to make and supply in the largest quantities anything inbo the manufacture of which cotton, calico, or woollens entered, from oil cloths to window curtains, reels oi thread to umbrellas, and eider downs to corsets. So vast did the concern become in course of time that it seemed almost incredible that one man could acquit himself of bbo responsibility of managing it. This fact impressed itself more and more upon Mr John Rylands as he found he was growing older, and accordingly, some fouiteen years ago, the undertaking was converted into a limited liability company, with a •capital of no less than £2,000,000. Since that time the developments have been, if possible, still more rapid than before, until now no fewer than 12,000 persons are employed, and a degree of expansion has been attained which is without parallel in the manufacturing and mercantile world. — ' Pall Mall Budget. 5