Facing Broad Street from statue. Early 20c Photo. (Local Studies: Warwickshire Photographic Survey)
Photo of Plymouth, Montserrat. 19c. (Privately owned photograph).
Advert of Montserrat Company. (Privately owned image).
Sturge's Business on Broad Street
Sturge, like many philanthropists of the nineteenth century, had to earn his living through business. His trade, along with his brother Charles, was that of 'Corn Merchant'. White's Directory of Birmingham (1855) tells us that the address of his warehouse offices was not far from his home: 'Sturge, Joseph & Chas, 194 Broad Street, Islington.'
It was often difficult for Sturge to balance 'morality' and 'profits'. It was for this reason his business refused to supply grain to be used for the production of alcohol in 1844.
Later, in 1857, Sturge also established a 'free labour' plantation on the island of Montserrat to prove slavery was not needed to create wealth. A Birmingham owned 'Montserrat Company' operated until the twentieth century.
