Alfred Herbert Ltd and the British Machine Tool Industry, 1887-1983

Alfred Herbert Ltd and the British Machine Tool Industry, 1887-1983 PDF Author: Roger Lloyd-Jones
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351959565
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Get Book Here

Book Description
At the beginning of the twentieth century Britain was amongst the world leaders in the production of machine tools, yet by the 1980s the industry was in terminal decline. Focusing on the example of Britain's largest machine tool maker, Alfred Herbert Ltd of Coventry, this study charts the wider fortunes of this vital part of the manufacturing sector. Taking a chronological approach, the book explores how during the late nineteenth century the industry developed a reputation for excellence throughout the world, before the challenges of two world wars necessitated drastic changes and reorganisations. Despite meeting these challenges and emerging with confidence into the post-war market place, the British machine tool industry never regained its pre-eminent position, and increasingly lost ground to foreign competition. By using the example of Alfred Herbert Ltd to illuminate the broader economic and business history of the British machine tool industry, this study not only provides a valuable insight into British manufacturing, but also contributes to the ongoing debates surrounding Britain's alleged decline as a manufacturing nation.

Alfred Herbert Ltd and the British Machine Tool Industry, 1887-1983

Alfred Herbert Ltd and the British Machine Tool Industry, 1887-1983 PDF Author: Roger Lloyd-Jones
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351959565
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Get Book Here

Book Description
At the beginning of the twentieth century Britain was amongst the world leaders in the production of machine tools, yet by the 1980s the industry was in terminal decline. Focusing on the example of Britain's largest machine tool maker, Alfred Herbert Ltd of Coventry, this study charts the wider fortunes of this vital part of the manufacturing sector. Taking a chronological approach, the book explores how during the late nineteenth century the industry developed a reputation for excellence throughout the world, before the challenges of two world wars necessitated drastic changes and reorganisations. Despite meeting these challenges and emerging with confidence into the post-war market place, the British machine tool industry never regained its pre-eminent position, and increasingly lost ground to foreign competition. By using the example of Alfred Herbert Ltd to illuminate the broader economic and business history of the British machine tool industry, this study not only provides a valuable insight into British manufacturing, but also contributes to the ongoing debates surrounding Britain's alleged decline as a manufacturing nation.

Alfred Herbert Ltd and the British Machine Tool Industry, 1887-1983

Alfred Herbert Ltd and the British Machine Tool Industry, 1887-1983 PDF Author: Roger Lloyd-Jones
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781315262949
Category : BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
"At the beginning of the twentieth century Britain was amongst the world leaders in the production of machine tools, yet by the 1980s the industry was in terminal decline. Focusing on the example of Britain's largest machine tool maker, Alfred Herbert Ltd of Coventry, this study charts the wider fortunes of this vital part of the manufacturing sector. Taking a chronological approach, the book explores how during the late nineteenth century the industry developed a reputation for excellence throughout the world, before the challenges of two world wars necessitated drastic changes and reorganisations. Despite meeting these challenges and emerging with confidence into the post-war market place, the British machine tool industry never regained its pre-eminent position, and increasingly lost ground to foreign competition. By using the example of Alfred Herbert Ltd to illuminate the broader economic and business history of the British machine tool industry, this study not only provides a valuable insight into British manufacturing, but also contributes to the ongoing debates surrounding Britain's alleged decline as a manufacturing nation."--Provided by publisher.

British Entrepreneurship in Poland

British Entrepreneurship in Poland PDF Author: Sarah Dietz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317172035
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book Here

Book Description
Drawing upon an impressive range of international sources, this book explores the late-nineteenth century partnership between Bradford worsted manufacturers the Briggs brothers and the German merchant Ernst Posselt, and their subsequent foreign direct investment in a modern factory and workers’ community at Marki, near Warsaw in Poland. Protectionism and increasing foreign competition are discussed, among many complex economic pressures on British industry, as likely catalysts for this enterprise and the general historiography of the Polish lands is explored to reveal a climate of extraordinary opportunity for well-capitalised foreign industrialists in this period. British, Polish and German press and archival documents, as well as Russian police and factory inspectors’ reports reveal the everyday experience of Polish factory workers and British consular correspondence provides fascinating insight into the machinations of the entrepreneurs and Warsaw’s cosmopolitan business community. Through the development and domination of market and raw materials sources, this venture is shown to have monopolised worsted manufacture in the Russian Empire, using state of the art technology to create, and modern marketing techniques to promote, its product range and evolving image. Marki was described in 1886 as ’a second edition of Saltaire’ and latterly as ’the Polish Bournville or Port Sunlight’, thus aspects of British and Polish social history are compared to assess the efficacy of introducing the model-community concept, in combination with a radical employment policy, to less industrially-developed Poland. The experiences of an expatriate community of skilled Yorkshire foremen and their instrumentality in diffusing British industrial technology throughout the Russian Empire are described. Against a backdrop of political instability and social upheaval, which dramatically impacted on business behaviour after 1905 and particularly during the interwar period of

British Mail Steamers to South America, 1851-1965

British Mail Steamers to South America, 1851-1965 PDF Author: Robert E. Forrester
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317171853
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
During the nineteenth century Britain’s maritime, commercial and colonial interests all depended upon a regular and reliable flow of seaborne information from around the globe. Whilst the telegraph increasingly came to dominate long-distance communication, postal services by sea played a vital role in the network of information exchange, particularly to the more distant locations. Much importance was placed upon these services by the British government which provided large subsidies to a small number of commercial companies to operate them. Concentrating initially on the mail service between Britain and South America, this book explores the economic and political involvement of, at the outset, The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (later, Royal Mail Lines) from 1851 until 1874. (The Company’s West Indies services were subsidized from 1840 until the early years of the 20th century.) As well as providing a business history of the Royal Mail companies the book reveals much of the development of Brazil and Argentina as trading nations and the many and varied consequences of maintaining a long-distance mail service. Improved ship design led to larger vessels of greater cargo capacities, essential to the growth of the lucrative, and highly competitive, import/export trades between Britain and Europe and South America. The provision of increased passenger services contributed to the very considerable British financial, commercial and industrial interests in Latin America well into the 20th century. The book also addresses the international competition faced by Royal Mail Lines which reflected Britain’s progressively diminishing dominance of global trade and shipping. In all this book has much to say that will interest not only business historians but all those seeking a better understating of Britain’s maritime and economic history.

British Tank Production and the War Economy, 1934-1945

British Tank Production and the War Economy, 1934-1945 PDF Author: Benjamin Coombs
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1472512820
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
British Tank Production and the War Economy, 1934-1945 explores the under-researched experiences of the British tank industry in the context of the pressures of war. Benjamin Coombs explores the various demands placed on British industry during the Second World War, looking at the political, military and strategy pressures involved. By comparing the British tank programme with the Canadian, American, Russian and Australian equivalents, this study offers an international perspective on this aspect of the war economy. Topics covered include the premature contraction of the tank programme and dependence on American armour, the supply of the Valentine tank to the Russian authorities and the ongoing employment of the tank in the postwar peacetime markets.

British Conservatism and Trade Unionism, 1945–1964

British Conservatism and Trade Unionism, 1945–1964 PDF Author: Peter Dorey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131717206X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book Here

Book Description
For most of the twentieth century, the Conservative Party engaged in an ongoing struggle to curb the power of the trade unions, culminating in the radical legislation of the Thatcher governments. Yet, as this book shows, for a brief period between the end of the Second World War and the election of Harold Wilson's Labour government in 1964, the Conservative Party adopted a remarkably constructive and conciliatory approach to the trade unions, dubbed 'voluntarism'. During this time the party leadership made strenuous efforts to avoid, as far as was politically possible, confrontation with, or legislation against, the trade unions, even when this incurred the wrath of some Conservative backbenchers and the Party's mass membership. In explaining why the Conservative leadership sought to avoid conflict with the trade unions, this study considers the economic circumstances of the period in question, the political environment, electoral considerations, the perspective adopted by the Conservative leadership in comprehending industrial relations and explaining conflict in the workplace, and the personalities of both the Conservative leadership and the key figures in the trade unions. Making extensive use of primary and archival sources it explains why the 1945-64 period was unique in the Conservative Party's approach to Britain's trade unions. By 1964, though, even hitherto Conservative defenders of voluntarism were acknowledging that some form of official inquiry into the conduct and operation of trade British unionism, as a prelude to legislation, was necessary, thereby signifying that the heyday of 'voluntarism' and cordial relations between senior Conservatives and the trade unions was coming to an end.

Land, Proto-Industry and Population in Catalonia, c. 1680-1829

Land, Proto-Industry and Population in Catalonia, c. 1680-1829 PDF Author: Julie Marfany
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317108345
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Get Book Here

Book Description
This monograph makes a fresh contribution to a longstanding but far from exhausted debate concerning the transition to capitalism in Europe. The work investigates key aspects of this transformation: the changes on the land, the origins of the industrial revolution, the modern rise of population and the growth of markets. It does so from a new perspective, however, by focusing on an area of southern Europe, Catalonia. Catalonia's interest as an area for study lies in its precocity within a southern European context, as one of the few regions on the European periphery to industrialise in comparable ways and at the same time as areas of northern Europe. Population growth was similarly rapid. The study engages critically with several important debates in economic and social history, such as the transition to agrarian capitalism, whether or not sharecropping should be viewed as a backwards form of agricultural production, theories of proto-industrialisation and theories of population change. It also questions claims that the nuclear family of north-western Europe was a superior model for industralisation than the more extended family structures prevalent in southern Europe. Not only could the extended family be as dynamic as the nuclear family when required but, more importantly, attention needs to be paid to other institutions and factors that may have conditioned family forms and decision-making processes. The approach taken by this work is a micro-study of one community, Igualada, an important proto-industrial centre but also situated within the viticultural region. It grew rapidly over the eighteenth century from around 1,700 inhabitants in 1717 to 4,900 in 1787 and around 7,700 by 1830. Only at the micro-level is it feasible for an individual study to reconstruct networks of relationships and patterns of decision-making at the household level. At the core of the book, therefore, is a family reconstitution of 8,700 families, supplemented by a wide body of additional sources, such as landholding contracts, tax records, manorial surveys, inventories, marriage contracts and letters.

Personal Capitalism and Corporate Governance

Personal Capitalism and Corporate Governance PDF Author: Myrddin John Lewis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317081978
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is specifically aimed at addressing a gap in the study of the evolution of corporate governance in Britain. In particular its key theme, the relationship between corporate governance and personal capitalism in British manufacturing in the first half of the twentieth century, provides the means for a systematic and critical examination of the dominant Chandlerian paradigm that the long-running persistence of personal capitalism shaped the governance of British manufacturing firms well into the twentieth century and acted to erode their competitive performance. The book helps to identify those aspects of corporate governance that have undergone change, with some critical observations on the magnitude of change and those aspects which have displayed characteristics of continuity. The empirical spine of this book is set out in a series of case studies which provide the basis for the examination of corporate governance in Britain during the period c. 1900 to 1950. By focusing particularly on the responses of a range of businesses to the turbulent environment of the inter-war years, this volume offers an insight into a much neglected, yet vital, area of business and economic history.

Eastern European Railways in Transition

Eastern European Railways in Transition PDF Author: Henry Jacolin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317146522
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 461

Get Book Here

Book Description
During the nineteenth century, railway lines spread rapidly across Europe, linking the continent in ways unimaginable to previous generations. By the beginning of the twentieth century the great cities of the continent were linked by a complex and extensive rail network. Yet this high-point of interconnectivity, was abruptly cut-off after 1945, as the Cold War built barriers - both physical and ideological - between east and west. In this volume, leading transport history scholars take a fresh look at this situation, and the ramifications it had for Europe. As well as addressing the parallel development of railways either side of the Iron Curtain, the book looks at how transport links have been reconnected and reconfigured in the twenty years since the reunification of Europe. In particular, it focuses upon the former communist countries and how they have responded to the challenges and opportunities railways offer both nationally and internationally. Including contributions from historians, researchers, policy makers, representatives of railway companies and railway museum staff, the essays in this collection touch upon a rich range of subjects. Divided into four sections: 'The Historical Overview', 'Under Russian Protection', After the Fall of the Iron Curtain, and 'The Heritage of Railways in Eastern Europe' the volume offers a broadly chronological introduction to the issue, that provides both a snap-shot of current debates and a starting point for further research. It concludes that in an era of increased globalisation and interconnectivity - and despite the rise of air and road transport and virtual methods of communication - railways still have a crucial role to play in the development of a prosperous and connected Europe.

Commerce and Culture

Commerce and Culture PDF Author: Robert Lee
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317163893
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 429

Get Book Here

Book Description
Considerable attention has recently been focused on the importance of social networks and business culture in reducing transaction costs, both in the pre-industrial period and during the nineteenth century. This book brings together twelve original contributions by scholars in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and North America which represent important and innovative research on this topic. They cover two broad themes. First, the role of business culture in determining commercial success, in particular the importance of familial, religious, ethnic and associational connections in the working lives of merchants and the impact of business practices on family life. Second, the wider institutional and political framework for business operations, in particular the relationship between the political economy of trade and the cultural world of merchants in an era of transition from personal to corporate structures. These key themes are developed in three separate sections, each with four contributions. They focus, in turn, on the role of culture in building and preserving businesses; the interplay between institutions, networks and power in determining commercial success or failure; and the significance of faith and the family in influencing business strategies and the direction of merchant enterprise. The wider historiographical context of the individual contributions is discussed in an extended introductory chapter which sets out the overall agenda of the book and provides a broader comparative framework for analysing the specific issues covered in each of the three sections. Taken together the collection offers an important addition to the available literature in this field and will attract a wide readership amongst business, cultural, maritime, economic, social and urban historians, as well as historical anthropologists, sociologists and other social scientists whose research embraces a longer-term perspective.