Public policy and British commercial vehicles during the export drive era, 1945-50

Business History

Volumn 40, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 22-44

  French, Michael ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 0010930121     PISSN: 00076791     EISSN: 17437938     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00076799800000167     Document Type: Article

References (108)

1. A. Cairncross, Years of Recovery: British Economic Policy, 1945-1951 (London, 1985), Chs.11 and 12.
2. C. Barnett, The Audit of War (London, 1986).
3. Cairncross, Years of Recovery, Chs.1 and 4.
4. J. Tomlinson, 'Mr Attlee's Supply-Side Socialism', Economic History Review, 2nd series, Vol.XLVINo.1 (1993), p.6.
5. Cairncross, Years of Recovery, p.86.
6. A.J. Youngson, 'Britain, 1920-1970', in C. Cipolla (ed.), The Fontana Economic History of Europe: Contemporary Economies, Part 1, Vol.6 No.1 (Glasgow, 1976), p.156;
7. Tomlinson, 'Supply-Side Socialism', pp.1-22.
8. N. Tiratsoo, The Attlee Years (London, 1991);
9. J. Tomlinson, 'The Failure of the Anglo-American Council on Productivity', Business History, Vol.33 (1991), pp.90-105.
10. M.W. Dupree, 'Struggling with Destiny: The Cotton Industry, Overseas Trade Policy and the Cotton Board, 1940-1959', in M.B. Rose (ed.), International Competition and Strategic Response in the Textile Industries since 1870 (London, 1991), pp.106-28.
11. J. Singleton, 'Showing the White Flag: The Lancashire Cotton Industry, 1945-65', in Rose (ed.), International Competition, pp.129-49.
12. M. Moss, 'Scotch Whisky: 1933-1988', in M. Chick (ed.), Government, Industries and Markets: Aspects of Government-Industry Relations in the UK, Japan, West Germany and the USA since 1945 (Aldershot, 1990), p.185.
13. See, for instance, PRO, CAB 134,167, E(48)26, Committee on Exports, Exports to the USA, 5 March 1948.
14. T.R. Whisler, 'Niche Products in the British Motor Industry: A History of MG and Triumph Sports Cars, 1945-1981', Business and Economic History, Vol.22 No.1 (1993), p.20.
15. N. Tiratsoo, 'The Motor Car Industry', in H. Mercer, N. Rollings and J. Tomlinson (eds.), Labour Governments and Private Industry: The Experience of 1945-1951 (Edinburgh, 1992), pp.l62-85.
16. D.G. Rhys, The Motor Industry: An Economic Survey (London, 1972), p.375.
17. P.J.S. Dunnett, The Decline of the British Motor Industry: The Effect of Government Policy, 1945-1979 (London, 1980), Ch.3.
18. T.R. Whisler, 'The Outstanding Potential Market: The British Motor Industry and Europe, 1945-75', Journal of Transport History, Vol.15 No.1 (1994), pp.2-5.
19. Tiratsoo, Labour Governments, pp.162-85.
20. Dunnett, British Motor Industry, pp.35-6.
21. Rhys, The Motor Industry, pp.79-80.
22. J. Foreman-Peck, S. Bowden and A. McKinlay, The British Motor Industry (Manchester, 1995), p.85.
23. Engineering, 17 Jan. 1947, pp.64-7.
24. M.M. Postan, British War Production (London, 1952), pp.184-95. I am grateful to Jonathan Zeitlin and Til Geiger for this reference.
25. PEP, Engineering Reports, II: Motor Vehicles (London, 1950), p.78.
26. Commercial Motor, 22 Sept. 1950, p.153.
27. Rhys, The Motor Industry, pp.418, 422.
28. R. Church, The Rise and Decline of the British Motor Industry (London, 1994), p.44;
29. Foreman-Peck et al., British Motor Industry, p.95.
30. Commercial Motor, 17Feb. 1950, p.56;
31. on the British commercial vehicle industry in Europe in the 1950s, see S.J. Wells, British Export Performance: A Comparative Study (Cambridge, 1964),
32. and the Economist Intelligence Unit, Britain and Europe (London, 1957).
33. Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick (hereafter MRC), AEC Papers, AEC Gazette (April 1949), p.49.
34. MRC, Crossley Motors Papers, MSS226/CR/1/1/2, Directors' Minutes, 9 June 1947 and 24 June 1947.
35. Biggar Museum Trust (hereafter BMT), 21 Jan. 1952 for discussion of plans for exports.
36. PRO, T229/349, Ministry of Supply Draft Paper to Production Committee, 14 Sept. 1949, Production and Export Data by Firm, 1948-49.
37. Rhys, The Motor Industry, p.417.
38. Rhys, The Motor Industry Ibid., p.428.
39. L.T. Holden, 'A History of Vauxhall Motors to 1950: Industry, Development and Local Impact on the Luton Economy' (unpublished M.Phil, thesis, Open University, 1983), p.80.
40. See BMT, Albion Board Minute Book, 28 Sept. 1948.
41. C. Gulvin, 'Sir Henry Spurrier', in D.J. Jeremy (ed.). Dictionary of Business Biography, Vol.5 (London, 1986), p.255.
42. C. Gulvin, 'Donald Gresham Stokes', in Jeremy (ed.), Dictionary of Business Biography, Vol.5, pp.347-55.
43. BMT, 5 March 1948;
44. MRC, AEC Papers, AEC Gazette, 1946-50.
45. Overseas restrictions are noted in BMT, Board Minute Book, 24 May 1949.
46. MRC, AEC Papers, Board Minute Book 1, 1 Oct. 1945, 19 Nov. 1945 and 2 June 1947.
47. MRC, AEC Papers, Board Minute Book, 2 June 1947 and 17 Nov. 1947.
48. Rhys, The Motor Industry, pp.380, 419.
49. Rhys, The Motor Industry Ibid., pp.377, 419;
50. S. Wilks, 'Institutional Insularity: Government and the British Motor Industry since 1945', in Chick (ed.), Government, Industries and Markets, pp.167-8.
51. D. Edgerton, 'Whatever Happened to the British Warfare State? The Ministry of Supply, 1945-1951', in H. Mercer el al. (eds.), Labour Governments and Private Industry, pp.91-116;
52. P. Howlett, 'Resource Allocation in Wartime Britain: The Case of Steel, 1939-45', Journal of Contemporary History, Vol.29 (1994), pp.523-44.
53. PRO, T229/349, Investment Programmes Committee, Ministry of Transport Road Vehicles Correspondence, L.B. Hutchinson to F.W. Smith, 29 Nov. 1947. In 1947 commercial vehicle production was licensed through the Ministry of Supply under the Control of Engineering Production (No 1) Order, 1947.
54. BMT, Albion Motor Company, Board Minute Book, 30 April 1947 and 28 Aug. 1947.
55. Firms were allowed one year in which to adjust their output to meet the requirements of the plan. PRO, T229/349, E.H. Clayton to F.W. Smith, 11 June 1948.
56. J. Foreman-Peck, 'Trade and the Balance of Payments', in N.F.R. Crafts and N.W.C. Woodward (eds.), The British Economy since 1945 (Oxford, 1991), p.l53.
57. MRC, Crossley Motors Ltd, MSS226/CR/1/1/2, Board Minute Book, 25 Jan. 1949.
58. Surrey Record Office, Guildford Muniment Room, Guildford (hereafter SRO), Dennis Papers, Minute Book 7, 25 May 1947.
59. PRO, T229/349. Ministry of Supply Draft Paper to Production Committee, 14 Sept. 1949, Production and Export Data by Firm, 1948-49.
60. J Zeitlin, 'Americanization and its Limits: Theory and Practice in the Reconstruction of Britain's Engineering Industries, 1945-55', Business and Economic History, Vol.24 No.1 (1995), pp.277-86.
61. MRC, AEC Papers, AEC Gazette (Feb. 1950), pp.23-4.
62. PRO, T229/349, Douglas Jay to George Strauss, 6 Oct. 1948.
63. Jay's criticism carried a tone of expediency since in April 1947 he had successfully opposed Ministry of Transport proposals to limit class C licensees to operations within a 40-mile radius of their base. D. Jay, Change and Fortune: A Political Record (London, 1980), p. 163.
64. PRO, T229/349 George Strauss to D. Jay, 21 Oct. 1948.
65. PRO, T229/349, Ministry of Transport to D. Jay, 20 Oct. 1948.
66. PRO, T229/349, H. Bailey to D.C.B. Holden, 31 Aug. 1948.
67. PRO, T229/34, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture to D. Jay, 8 Nov. 1948.
68. PRO, T229/349, P. Vinter to W. Strath, 18 Nov. 1948.
69. PRO, T229/349, Ministry of Supply Draft Paper to Production Committee, 14 July 1949.
70. PRO, R.L. Hall to Edwin Plowden, 27 Sept. 1949. For similar criticism see R.F. Bretherton to W. Strath, 27 Sept. 1949.
71. PRO, D. Jay, Memo to Chancellor, 29 Sept. 1949.
72. PRO, Extract from the Minutes of Meeting of Production Committee, 30 Sept. 1949.
73. PRO, T229/349, P. Vinter, Note on Ministry of Supply Paper, 15 Dec. 1949.
74. PRO, T171/400, 1950 Budget Papers, volume 1, Minute 9-10, Dec. 1949, Economic Secretary to the Treasury;
75. see also Jay, Change and Fortune, pp. 192-3.
76. PRO, T229/ 350, D. Jay Memo to Chancellor, 25 Jan. 1950.
77. PRO, T229/350, Cabinet Investment Programmes Committee, Investment in Vehicles, Note by Economic Section, 11 Feb. 1950.
78. M. Seth-Smith, The Long Haul (London, 1975), p. 139;
79. P. Williams (ed.), The Diary of Hugh Gaitskell (London, 1983), p.184, 26 May 1950.
80. Strath's draft estimated current output was double the government's 50,000 per annum target. The 1950 Economic Survey envisaged cutting output to 50,000 vehicles in the second half of 1950. PRO, T229/238, Ministry of Transport, Purchase Tax on Commercial Vehicles.
81. Hansard (Commons), 5th series, Vol.474, 18 April 1950, cols.73-5.
82. PRO, T229/238. H. Gaitskell to R.R. Stokes, 21 Jun. 1950. On Gaitskell's earlier advocacy of physical controls see Cairncross, Years of Recovery, pp.329-32.
83. MRC, CBI Predecessor Archive, MSS 200/F/1/1/135, FBI Taxation Committee, 18 May 1950. I am grateful to Richard Storey for this information.
84. Commercial Motor, 28 April 1950, pp.324-5, and 5 May 1950, pp.387-8. The journal consistently opposed government transport policies, especially nationalisation, between 1945 and 1952.
85. PRO, T229/238, G. Pargiter to Stafford Cripps, 24 April 1950.
86. The BTVMA emerged during 1944 because the heavy lorry makers were dissatisfied with the lack of influence that their views carried within the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders in discussions over price control, see BMT, Board Minute Book, 28 Feb. 1944, 1 Sept. 1944;
87. by 21 Oct. 1946 Albion minutes refer to 12 members of the SMMT's heavy vehicle section and to a commercial vehicle section. SRO, Dennis Papers, Minute Book 6, 16 May 1944.
88. MRC, AEC Papers, MSS226/ACV/1/1, Board Minute Book, 23 Jun. 1950, ACV Sales Ltd.
89. PRO, T229/350, Vinter brief, 24 Feb. 1950.
90. M.R. Bonavia, The Nationalisation of British Transport: The Early History of the British Transport Commission, 1948-1955 (London, 1987), p.78, Table 7.1.
91. Ibid. Nationalisation of British Transport, pp.92-3.
92. Commercial Motor, 3 Sept. 1948, pp.99-100.
93. Rhys, The Motor Industry, p.419.
94. For a contemporary discussion see P.A.C. Brockington, 'How Export Demands Affect Chassis Design', Commercial Motor, 29 Oct. 1948.
95. Engineer, 1 Oct. 1948.
96. Brockington, 'How Export Demands Affect Chassis Design'.
97. Holden, thesis, p.71.
98. PEP, Motor Vehicles, pp.70-71.
99. See BMT, Board Minute Book, 26 Oct. 1948.
100. MRC, AEC Papers, Board Minute Book, 6 Oct. 1947.
101. According to the AEC Chairman, 'Vehicles manufactured by AEC for the United Kingdom were not in the main suitable for overseas and in many cases the materials employed were different', MRC, AEC Papers, AEC Gazette (Feb. 1948), pp.1-2.
102. On Fulton's talks see Commercial Motor, 18 June 1948, p.537, and 10 Dec. 1948, p.57.
103. BMT, 24 Nov. 1947.
104. SRO, Dennis Papers, Minute Book 6, 24 Oct. 1944, 30 Jan. 1945, 20 Feb. 1945 and 19 March 1945.
105. SRO, Dennis Papers, Minute Book 6, 21 June 1945.
106. SRO, Dennis Papers, Minute Book 6, 30 Oct. 1945, 22 Nov. 1945 and 18 June 1946;
107. G. Taylor, The Leyland Papers (London, 1971), pp.20-21.
108. Seth-Smith, The Long Haul, p. 149.