William Morris
As a result of this continued struggle, Morris & Co. was forced to restructure, and inactive members were made redundant and paid £1,000.00 in compensation. DG Rossetti, one of those who were retired, found the sum to be something of an insult and a bitter argument ensued between him and Morris. It has been pointed out, however, that the loss of love between the two long-time friends may well have been caused by the ongoing affair between Rossetti and William Morris's wife, Jane. By 1880, textiles were the firm's most important product. They began producing chintzes, rugs, tapestries, brocades, and damasks. Such goods became quite popular between among the upper classes. Morris was commissioned to create wallpaper for Queen Victoria's Scottish home at Balmoral. It was this sort of patronage, however, that formed a sort of irony: the company had been formed to provide utilitarian and beautiful objects to all classes of people. Unfortunately, however, the craftsmanship that such an approach required was indeed costly- Morris had experimented with traditional dyeing techniques, which were on the verge of being forgotten as mechanical processes were developing. It was a further irony that Morris was a militant socialist in the 1880s and 1890s whilst his firm was decorating the homes and estates of the wealthy, at a considerable expense.
However, it is interesting to note how Morris's belief in socialism was reflected in his management. He was not always able to provide the shorter working hours and high rates of pay which socialism advocated. He did, nonetheless, instigate fair treatment of his workers. Although he did in fact use children in his factory, mostly as weavers, they were housed in a separate building and were under the supervision of a housekeeper. The submanagers of Morris & Co. shared directly in the company's profits and the colour mixer and foreman dyer collected bonuses. The rest of the workmen received fixed rates or part-time piecework. Morris even went so far as to keep- in his own words- 'two or three people about the place [who were] of no use to the business...on the live-and-let-live principle' (Parry, 20).
After Morris's death in 1896, the firm continued to produce the goods that Morris had designed. His patterns, especially those for wallpaper, are still in use today. In spite of Morris's deeply held personal belief of trying to create an egalitarian society, his furniture became, in the decades to
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