I'm attempting to remember a historical figure who I read about a while ago. He was a mill or factory owner in the early 1800s in England, it may have been in the north. He was one if the first owners to implement rights for his workers, revolutionary at the time. For example they were fairly paid, not allowed to work more than a set number of hours a day, their children were sent to school, they were allowed time off if they were sick etc. The man's fellow mill or factory owners were astounded when he turned a profit.
Could it be Robert Owen? He was manager and part-owner of the New Lanark mill in Scotland, and among other things he paid employees in currency instead of tokens (as was customary), pressed for ten and later eight hour workdays, etc. He's a pretty seminal figure in pre-Marxist socialism.