the nineteenth-century designer poet and
entrepreneur William Morris is one of
the best guides we have to the modern
economy despite the fact that he died
while Queen Victoria was still on the
throne never made a telephone call and
would have found the very idea of TV
utterly baffling Morris was the first
person to understand two issues which
have become decisive for our times
firstly the role of pleasure in work and
secondly the nature of consumer demand
William Morris was born in 1834 into a
well-off English family after graduating
he spent some time training as an
architect but at this stage a
conventional career wasn't his main
concern he saw himself as an artist and
a poet he was simply interested in
making things for his own satisfaction
and maybe for the enjoyment of a few
friends a year after he married his
favorite actress and model
Morris became obsessed with a project of
building and furnishing a family home at
Bexleyheath in southeast London it was
called the red house and pretty much
everything in it was designed from
scratch either by Morris himself or by
his close friend an architectural
collaborator Philip Webb the experience
of building and fitting out his house
taught Morris his first big lesson about
the economy it would have been simpler
and maybe cheaper to have ordered
everything from a factory outlet but
Morris wasn't trying to find the
quickest or simplest way to set up home
he wanted to find the way that would
give him and everyone involved in the
project maximum satisfaction this
process fired Morris with an enthusiasm
for the medieval idea of craft the
worker would develop sensitivity and
skill and enjoy the labor it wasn't to
be mechanical or humiliating he spotted
the craft offers important clues to what
we actually want from work we want to
know we've done something good with the
day that our efforts have counted
towards tangible outcomes that we
actually see and feel a worthwhile labor
can be dignified it was a timely insight
this was an era of massive
industrialization and the conditions
were often horrendous Morris was
determined to show that the principles
of craft and of satisfying work for the
worker could and should be at the heart
of the modern world and that he realized
and making them into a business so in
1861 still in his mid-twenties Morris
started a decorative arts business
Morris Marshall Faulkner & Co which they
like to call simply the firm his
colleagues included burne-jones
the brilliant poet painter and
charismatic personality Dante Gabriel
Rossetti and the architect Philip Webb
they set up a factory making wallpaper
chairs curtains and tables they were
very proud not only of the elegant
designs but of the quality of the
workmanship that went into all their
products but the firm soon encountered a
very instructive problem the factories
and machines of the Industrial
Revolution had brought about mass
production if you ask a comparatively
high price to ensure the dignity of work
and quality of materials and so make
something that will last you really risk
losing customers
surely the logic of economics dictates
that the lower price will always
necessarily win or does it for Morris
the key factor is whether customers are
willing to pay what he called the just
price if they are then work can be
honorable if they're not then work is
necessarily going to be on the whole
degrading and miserable so Morris
concluded that the linchpin of a good
economy is the education of the consumer
we collectively needs to get clearer
about what we really want in our lives
and why and how much certain things are
going to be worth to us until we have
better collective taste we're going to
struggle to have a better economy in
society it's a huge idea an important
clue to good consumption Morris insisted
is that you should have nothing in your
houses that you don't know to be useful
or believed to be beautiful it's not an
invitation to bleak renunciation Morris
wasn't trying to make anyone feel guilty
or ashamed he wished for people to see
their purchases as investments and buy
items sparingly he would have preferred
for someone to spend a great deal on an
intricate handmade dining set that would
last for decades and grow to become a
family heirloom and for each generation
to buy its own cheap alternative just to
be thrown away when fashions changed for
Morris himself his business didn't work
out terribly well there was healthy
demand from the well-to-do the Morris
lines of furniture wallpaper fabrics and
lamps continued to sell for many years
and still do but he didn't manage to
into the wider bigger markets that he
aspired to he died in 1896 of
tuberculosis still we should remember
him because he directs our attention to
a set of centrally important tests that
a good economy should pass how much do
people enjoy working how long a consumer
goods expected to last other cities
beautiful generally not just in a few
privileged parts the economy can with
fatal ease feel as if it's governed by
abstract complex laws Morris's point is
that nevertheless the economy is
intimately tethered to our preferences
and choices it may not be necessary to
bring factories banks and corporations
into public ownership and it may not be
necessary to wind back government impact
on markets the true task in creating a
good economy Morris shows us lies much
closer to home in our own homes
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