Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Long-run growth
- 2 Population and regional development
- 3 Human capital and skills
- 4 Manufacturing and technological change
- 5 The service sector
- 6 Agriculture, 1860–1914
- 7 Trade, 1870–1939: from globalisation to fragmentation
- 8 Foreign investment, accumulation and Empire, 1860–1914
- 9 Enterprise and management
- 10 Domestic finance, 1860–1914
- 11 Living standards, 1860–1939
- 12 The British economy between the wars
- 13 Unemployment and the labour market, 1870–1939
- 14 British industry in the interwar years
- 15 Industrial and commercial finance in the interwar years
- 16 Scotland, 1860–1939: growth and poverty
- 17 Government and the economy, 1860–1939
- References
- Index
14 - British industry in the interwar years
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- 1 Long-run growth
- 2 Population and regional development
- 3 Human capital and skills
- 4 Manufacturing and technological change
- 5 The service sector
- 6 Agriculture, 1860–1914
- 7 Trade, 1870–1939: from globalisation to fragmentation
- 8 Foreign investment, accumulation and Empire, 1860–1914
- 9 Enterprise and management
- 10 Domestic finance, 1860–1914
- 11 Living standards, 1860–1939
- 12 The British economy between the wars
- 13 Unemployment and the labour market, 1870–1939
- 14 British industry in the interwar years
- 15 Industrial and commercial finance in the interwar years
- 16 Scotland, 1860–1939: growth and poverty
- 17 Government and the economy, 1860–1939
- References
- Index
Summary
Overview and Introduction
Private enterprise has achieved great results. If present economic conditions are often bad, it is incontestable that past conditions have been very much worse. The nineteenth century was an age of unequalled material progress …There has been, and still is, an energy and resourcefulness in our industry and commerce which it would be harmful to impair and fatal to destroy. The problem is how to cure what is unhealthy in the economic body without injuring the organs which are sound.
(Liberal Industrial Inquiry 1928: xviii)Thus concluded an inquiry into Britain’s industrial performance and her future industrial prospects in 1928: it aptly captures the picture of industry in the interwar years as having both positive and negative aspects, sound characteristics but equally constraints on its ability to realise its full potential. As indicated in chapters 1 and 4 above, industry before the war was not without its problems: shares of world trade slipped as other nations industrialised; new industries born of the new technology of electricity, motor power and chemicals were relatively slow to develop; Britain’s productivity performance seemed less impressive than that of its main rivals. However, these concerns were small compared to the chorus of predictions of gloom which characterised the interwar years: a collapse in international trade, and with it our export markets, signalled a picture of doom to contemporary commentators.
There was, however, another side to industrial performance in these years: a story of successful industries, firms adapting to change, technological innovation and entrepreneurial energy. How do we explain this? Which industries and firms prospered, and which did not? Why were some industries able to adapt to change, but others not? What were the implications for the long-run performance of the economy? Insights from industrial economics help us to identify constraints on change and provide the theoretical framework for this chapter.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain , pp. 374 - 402Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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