The RBA has recently launched a display celebrating the much-esteemed and much-missed Reading department store, Jacksons, which was open from 1875 to 2013. This highlight examines a list of rules for staff, undated, but from around the 1880s (document reference: D/EX2670/3/4).
The item in question is a torn and heavily marked piece of paper, mounted on a wooden plaque, which in turn would have been mounted on a wall in Jacksons department store, likely in a space where it could easily be seen by staff, but was invisible to customers.
There are 14 rules listed, and next to each one is an amount of money – ranging from 1 penny to 4 pence – that denotes the cost of infracting each one. The fines would usually come from the staff’s ‘premiums’ (essentially bonuses), but if the staff were not due any premiums, then the plaque clearly states that the money would come out of their salary – a powerful threat indeed.
The rules mostly concern dereliction of duty – for example, taking down a wrong address and not taking note of items no longer in stock. Jacksons’ primary function as a tailor and outfitter is also evident, with potential offences including providing incorrect measurements and ‘sending orders to the cutting room floor without full instructions’.
The obvious purpose of these rules was to prevent financial and material loss for Jacksons by ensuring that the front-of-house staff practiced good bookkeeping, whilst also maintaining a clear line of communication with those who were tasked with creating and modifying the items of clothing being sold.
But there is another, more implicit purpose to the plaque, mostly suggested by the penultimate line: ‘Tact, push, and principle, are the essentials for a good business hand’. This is not presented as a rule, but rather as a maxim: one that suggests that the above list of infractions is concerned with more than just safeguarding the financial wellbeing of the company. The words ‘push’ and ‘principle’ imply that Jacksons was equally as concerned with ensuring that their staff members at Jacksons led a virtuous life, free of any temptations towards idleness or fraudulent activity. Only a good person could own a ‘good business hand’.
The plaque echoes what Max Weber famously termed ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’, whereby hard work was seen as the ultimate virtue, and any financial success that resulted from that hard work was seen as incontrovertible proof of God’s divine approval. Being a good worker and being a good person were inseparable qualities. According to Weber, it was this ethic that fuelled a particularly entrepreneurial spirit in much of Northern Europe, including Britain, that led to these nations becoming world leaders in industry, innovation, and finance.
However, it is worth remembering that there have always been people sceptical of the idea that hard work was meritorious in and of itself. It is difficult to ignore the fact that those who promoted this viewpoint most strongly were usually the employers, who happened to benefit materially from a workforce motivated by religious reward, not financial recompense.
Manager and Founder Edward Jackson (whose name appears prominently at the bottom of the list), seems to have been aware of this potential source of cynicism and discontent. He therefore makes a point of emphasising the fact that money deducted from staff as punishment will not go to the store itself, but rather it will ‘be given to some benevolent object’, as if to dispel any doubt as to the selfless motivations behind these rules.
Nevertheless, the document reveals that someone, very likely a member of staff, remained unconvinced. A later hand has thrice underlined the word ‘benevolent’ and followed the word ‘object’ with three large question marks in red ink. It is clear that the owner of this hand is expressing incredulity as to what exactly this vague ‘benevolent object’ actually was (did they know something we don’t?), but they also seem to be quite literally questioning the entire fine-based system of rules.
This is not to cast aspersions on Jacksons as an employer. By all accounts they consistently treated their employees well throughout their long history, according to the changing standards of the time. The point is simply this: a simple plaque of staff rules that once hung in a Reading department store can reveal much broader things about the prevailing attitudes towards work in late nineteenth-century Britain, and even hint at dissenting opinions at the same time. It is remarkable that such a simple document can be emblematic of an era, an area, and an ethos.
Visitors can enjoy the display, ‘The Family Store: Jacksons 150 years on’, in reception until 31st October 2025 during usual opening hours.
