Diversification strategies of British trading companies: Harrisons & Crosfield, c.1900-c.1980

Business History

Volumn 41, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 69-101

  Jones, Geoffrey ^a   Wale, Judith ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF READING   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; INDUSTRIAL HISTORY; ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK;

UNITED KINGDOM;

EID: 0032781841     PISSN: 00076791     EISSN: 17437938     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00076799900000258     Document Type: Article

References (100)

1. Examples of this genre include G. Jones (ed.), British Multinationals: Origins, Management and Performance (Aldershot, 1986); H. Cox, 'Growth and Ownership in the International Tobacco Industry: BAT 1902-1927', Business History, Vol.31 No.1 (1989); J. Wilson, 'International Business Strategies at Ferranti, 1907-75: Direction, Management and Performance', Business History, Vol.40 No.1 (1998), pp.100-121.
2. Examples of this genre include G. Jones (ed.), British Multinationals: Origins, Management and Performance (Aldershot, 1986); H. Cox, 'Growth and Ownership in the International Tobacco Industry: BAT 1902-1927', Business History, Vol.31 No.1 (1989); J. Wilson, 'International Business Strategies at Ferranti, 1907-75: Direction, Management and Performance', Business History, Vol.40 No.1 (1998), pp.100-121.
3. Examples of this genre include G. Jones (ed.), British Multinationals: Origins, Management and Performance (Aldershot, 1986); H. Cox, 'Growth and Ownership in the International Tobacco Industry: BAT 1902-1927', Business History, Vol.31 No.1 (1989); J. Wilson, 'International Business Strategies at Ferranti, 1907-75: Direction, Management and Performance', Business History, Vol.40 No.1 (1998), pp.100-121.
4. Lim Mah Hui, Ownership and Control of the One Hundred Largest Corporations in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, 1981), p. 107.
5. The Times 1000, 1979-1980 (London, 1979).
6. C. Jones, International Business in the Nineteenth Century (Brighton, 1987); S. Chapman, Merchant Enterprise in Britain from the Industrial Revolution to World War I (Cambridge, 1992). A more recent discussion of the British trading companies in Latin America can be found in C. Jones, 'Institutional Forms of British Foreign Direct Investment in South America', Business History, Vol.39 (1997), and R. Greenhill and R. Miller, 'British Trading Companies in South America after 1914', in G. Jones (ed.). The Trader Multinationals (London, 1998), pp. 102-27.
7. C. Jones, International Business in the Nineteenth Century (Brighton, 1987); S. Chapman, Merchant Enterprise in Britain from the Industrial Revolution to World War I (Cambridge, 1992). A more recent discussion of the British trading companies in Latin America can be found in C. Jones, 'Institutional Forms of British Foreign Direct Investment in South America', Business History, Vol.39 (1997), and R. Greenhill and R. Miller, 'British Trading Companies in South America after 1914', in G. Jones (ed.). The Trader Multinationals (London, 1998), pp. 102-27.
8. C. Jones, International Business in the Nineteenth Century (Brighton, 1987); S. Chapman, Merchant Enterprise in Britain from the Industrial Revolution to World War I (Cambridge, 1992). A more recent discussion of the British trading companies in Latin America can be found in C. Jones, 'Institutional Forms of British Foreign Direct Investment in South America', Business History, Vol.39 (1997), and R. Greenhill and R. Miller, 'British Trading Companies in South America after 1914', in G. Jones (ed.). The Trader Multinationals (London, 1998), pp. 102-27.
9. C. Jones, International Business in the Nineteenth Century (Brighton, 1987); S. Chapman, Merchant Enterprise in Britain from the Industrial Revolution to World War I (Cambridge, 1992). A more recent discussion of the British trading companies in Latin America can be found in C. Jones, 'Institutional Forms of British Foreign Direct Investment in South America', Business History, Vol.39 (1997), and R. Greenhill and R. Miller, 'British Trading Companies in South America after 1914', in G. Jones (ed.). The Trader Multinationals (London, 1998), pp. 102-27.
10. M. Misra, 'Entrepreneurial Decline and the End of Empire' (D. Phil., University of Oxford, 1992) examines four British managing agency houses in inter-war India. For Southeast Asia, there is the valuable study by N.J. White, Business, Government, and the End of Empire: Malaya, 1942-1957 (Kuala Lumpur, 1996), which includes a case study of the Borneo Company.
11. M. Misra, 'Entrepreneurial Decline and the End of Empire' (D. Phil., University of Oxford, 1992) examines four British managing agency houses in inter-war India. For Southeast Asia, there is the valuable study by N.J. White, Business, Government, and the End of Empire: Malaya, 1942-1957 (Kuala Lumpur, 1996), which includes a case study of the Borneo Company.
12. The most substantive studies are S. Jones, Two Centuries of Overseas Trading (London, 1986), and D.K. Fieldhouse, Merchant Capital and Economic Decolonization (Oxford, 1994), which cover the history of Inchcape and the United Africa Company respectively.
13. The most substantive studies are S. Jones, Two Centuries of Overseas Trading (London, 1986), and D.K. Fieldhouse, Merchant Capital and Economic Decolonization (Oxford, 1994), which cover the history of Inchcape and the United Africa Company respectively.
14. Chapman, Merchant Enterprise, chapter 8.
15. J.J. Puthucheary, Ownership and Control in the Malayan Economy (Singapore, 1960). During the period 1947-58 the wholly owned subsidiary Harrisons & Crosfield (Malaya) Ltd contributed on average over 17 per cent of total group pre-tax profits. (This compares with the average of 5.6 per cent contributed by the Indonesian branches during 1951-57.) GL, annual accounts of H & C (Malaya) Ltd, H & C group and Medan branch. H & C also had a larger number of estates under its management than any other company in Malaysia during the 1960s. J. Saham, British Industrial Development in Malaysia, 1963-71 (Kuala Lumpur 1980), p.115.
16. J.J. Puthucheary, Ownership and Control in the Malayan Economy (Singapore, 1960). During the period 1947-58 the wholly owned subsidiary Harrisons & Crosfield (Malaya) Ltd contributed on average over 17 per cent of total group pre-tax profits. (This compares with the average of 5.6 per cent contributed by the Indonesian branches during 1951-57.) GL, annual accounts of H & C (Malaya) Ltd, H & C group and Medan branch. H & C also had a larger number of estates under its management than any other company in Malaysia during the 1960s. J. Saham, British Industrial Development in Malaysia, 1963-71 (Kuala Lumpur 1980), p.115.
17. J.J. Puthucheary, Ownership and Control in the Malayan Economy (Singapore, 1960). During the period 1947-58 the wholly owned subsidiary Harrisons & Crosfield (Malaya) Ltd contributed on average over 17 per cent of total group pre-tax profits. (This compares with the average of 5.6 per cent contributed by the Indonesian branches during 1951-57.) GL, annual accounts of H & C (Malaya) Ltd, H & C group and Medan branch. H & C also had a larger number of estates under its management than any other company in Malaysia during the 1960s. J. Saham, British Industrial Development in Malaysia, 1963-71 (Kuala Lumpur 1980), p.115.
18. GL, annual reports of Sabah Timber Co. Ltd.
19. H & C annual reports suggest that manufacturing consistently contributed a greater proportion of total profits (for example, 15 percent in 1973) than its share in manufacturing would predict, although the company's changing categorisations of turnover and profits tend to obscure the picture. These reports also from the late 1960s provide a regional breakdown of operating results. In 1973 turnover was split 34 per cent UK, 46 per cent Asia, eight per cent North America and 12 per cent for the rest of the world. The breakdown of pre-tax profit, on the other hand, was 47 per cent UK, 38 per cent Asia, six per cent North America and nine per cent for the rest of the world. The difficulty with these figures is that they may contain a somewhat arbitrary allocation of profit between the London head office and the branches, particularly those in Asia.
20. The Guthrie Corporation was formed in London as a public company in 1965 following a series of reorganisations of the parent Guthrie company and the rubber and tin companies which it controlled. See J.H. Drabble and P.J. Drake, .The British Agency Houses in Malaysia: Survival in a Changing World', Journal of Southeast Asia Studies, Vol.12 (1981), pp.316-19.
21. D.J.M. Tate, The RGA History of the Plantation Industry in the Malay Peninsula (Kuala Lumpur, 1996), p.343.
22. GL, H & C annual reports; Companies House, Guthrie Corporation annual reports.
23. Harrisons & Crosfield, One Hundred Years of East India Merchants: Harrisons & Crosfield 1844-1943 (London, 1944); G. Nickalls (ed.), Great Enterprise: A History of Harrisons & Crosfield (London, 1990).
24. Harrisons & Crosfield, One Hundred Years of East India Merchants: Harrisons & Crosfield 1844-1943 (London, 1944); G. Nickalls (ed.), Great Enterprise: A History of Harrisons & Crosfield (London, 1990).
25. Chapman, Merchant Enterprise, p.241.
26. S. Yonekawa, 'General Trading Companies in a Comparative Context', in S. Yonekawa (ed.), General Trading Companies: A Comparative and Historical Study (Tokyo, 1990), p. 17. For a long-term study of the firm's strategy, see K. Saruwatari, 'Strategy of a British Trading Company in Eastern Territories: The Case of Harrisons & Crosfield Ltd, 1844-1982', Hitotsubashi Review, Vol.90 (1983) (in Japanese). The similarities between Harrisons & Crosfield and two other British trading companies - Borneo Company and James Finlay - and Japanese trading companies are examined in G. Jones, 'Diversification Strategies and Corporate Governance in Trading Companies: Anglo-Japanese Comparisons since the late Nineteenth Century', Business and Economic History, Vol.26 No.2 (1996).
27. S. Yonekawa, 'General Trading Companies in a Comparative Context', in S. Yonekawa (ed.), General Trading Companies: A Comparative and Historical Study (Tokyo, 1990), p. 17. For a long-term study of the firm's strategy, see K. Saruwatari, 'Strategy of a British Trading Company in Eastern Territories: The Case of Harrisons & Crosfield Ltd, 1844-1982', Hitotsubashi Review, Vol.90 (1983) (in Japanese). The similarities between Harrisons & Crosfield and two other British trading companies - Borneo Company and James Finlay - and Japanese trading companies are examined in G. Jones, 'Diversification Strategies and Corporate Governance in Trading Companies: Anglo-Japanese Comparisons since the late Nineteenth Century', Business and Economic History, Vol.26 No.2 (1996).
28. S. Yonekawa, 'General Trading Companies in a Comparative Context', in S. Yonekawa (ed.), General Trading Companies: A Comparative and Historical Study (Tokyo, 1990), p. 17. For a long-term study of the firm's strategy, see K. Saruwatari, 'Strategy of a British Trading Company in Eastern Territories: The Case of Harrisons & Crosfield Ltd, 1844-1982', Hitotsubashi Review, Vol.90 (1983) (in Japanese). The similarities between Harrisons & Crosfield and two other British trading companies - Borneo Company and James Finlay - and Japanese trading companies are examined in G. Jones, 'Diversification Strategies and Corporate Governance in Trading Companies: Anglo-Japanese Comparisons since the late Nineteenth Century', Business and Economic History, Vol.26 No.2 (1996).
29. R. A. Brown, Capital and Entrepreneurship in South-east Asia (London, 1994), pp.43-65.
30. Chapman, Merchant Enterprise, p.253.
31. Determining the relative importance of 'agency houses' as opposed to that of other promoters of rubber companies is, however, not straightforward and has been a matter of controversy; see J.H. Drabble and PJ. Drake, 'More on the Financing of Malayan Rubber, 1905-23', Economic History Review, Vol.27 (1974), pp.113-14.
32. Brown, Capital and Entrepreneurship, pp.57-8.
33. Evidence of these functions is provided by the board minutes, correspondence files and agency and secretarial agreements of the many 'secretarial' companies retained within the H & C collection at GL.
34. In Malaya company policy many have been influenced for some years by inability to expand the planted area which it managed by organising the opening up of new estates, since the government was still up to the mid-1950s refusing to release land for new planting; see P.T. Bauer, 'Malayan Rubber Policy', in T.H. Silcock (ed.), Readings in Malaysian Economics (Singapore, 1961). By 1960, however, the H & C director, Sir Eric Macfadyen, was able, in an address to the shareholders of a rubber plantation company of which he was chairman, to praise the government for its new encouragement of and subsidies for the replanting of existing estates. Quoted in M. Rudner, 'Malayan Rubber Policy: Development and Anti-Development during the 1950s', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol.7 (1976), p.250. A few yea rs earlier, H & C chairman, Sir Eric Miller, speaking to the shareholders of another plantation company, had expressed the H & C group's commitment to remaining in Malaya, in contrast to some other estate companies' policy of disinvestment. Quoted in ibid., p.257. (Disinvestment by means of a capital distribution to shareholders was however not unknown in H & C managed companies in the 1960s.)
35. In Malaya company policy many have been influenced for some years by inability to expand the planted area which it managed by organising the opening up of new estates, since the government was still up to the mid-1950s refusing to release land for new planting; see P.T. Bauer, 'Malayan Rubber Policy', in T.H. Silcock (ed.), Readings in Malaysian Economics (Singapore, 1961). By 1960, however, the H & C director, Sir Eric Macfadyen, was able, in an address to the shareholders of a rubber plantation company of which he was chairman, to praise the government for its new encouragement of and subsidies for the replanting of existing estates. Quoted in M. Rudner, 'Malayan Rubber Policy: Development and Anti-Development during the 1950s', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol.7 (1976), p.250. A few yea rs earlier, H & C chairman, Sir Eric Miller, speaking to the shareholders of another plantation company, had expressed the H & C group's commitment to remaining in Malaya, in contrast to some other estate companies' policy of disinvestment. Quoted in ibid., p.257. (Disinvestment by means of a capital distribution to shareholders was however not unknown in H & C managed companies in the 1960s.)
36. In Malaya company policy many have been influenced for some years by inability to expand the planted area which it managed by organising the opening up of new estates, since the government was still up to the mid-1950s refusing to release land for new planting; see P.T. Bauer, 'Malayan Rubber Policy', in T.H. Silcock (ed.), Readings in Malaysian Economics (Singapore, 1961). By 1960, however, the H & C director, Sir Eric Macfadyen, was able, in an address to the shareholders of a rubber plantation company of which he was chairman, to praise the government for its new encouragement of and subsidies for the replanting of existing estates. Quoted in M. Rudner, 'Malayan Rubber Policy: Development and Anti-Development during the 1950s', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol.7 (1976), p.250. A few yea rs earlier, H & C chairman, Sir Eric Miller, speaking to the shareholders of another plantation company, had expressed the H & C group's commitment to remaining in Malaya, in contrast to some other estate companies' policy of disinvestment. Quoted in ibid., p.257. (Disinvestment by means of a capital distribution to shareholders was however not unknown in H & C managed companies in the 1960s.)
37. GL, accounts of Davenport & Co. Ltd.
38. GL, records of BBT Ltd.
39. GL, records of Wilkinson Process Rubber Co. Ltd and Wilkinson Rubber Linatex Ltd.
40. Tate, RGA History, pp.452-63.
41. GL, annual reports of Pataling Rubber Estates Ltd.
42. GL, H & C annual report for 1967.
43. Guthries also claimed to have pioneered the development of new technical specifications for natural rubber. In the 1960s it developed a range under its Dynat trademark. Statement of April 1969 to the shareholders of James Templeton & Co. Ltd, carpet manufacturers of Glasgow, when that company was taken over by the Guthrie Corporation Ltd, in Companies J House file no. 840899.
44. Nickalls, Great Enterprise, pp. 182-4; GL, H & C annual report for 1969.
45. Nickalls, Great Enterprise, pp. 182-4; GL, H & C annual report for 1969.
46. GL, annual reports, board minutes and correspondence files of British Borneo Timber Ltd.
47. H & C, One Hundred Years, pp.43-4.
48. GL, H & C Ltd, Sphere of Operations in 1949 (privately printed), pp.8, 10; typescript history, c.1985, of southern India offices. H & C was not the only British trading company to diversify into engineering. Harper Gilfillan, for example, had significant works in Malaysia. Saham, British Industrial Development, p. 113.
49. GL, H & C Ltd, Sphere of Operations in 1949 (privately printed), pp.8, 10; typescript history, c.1985, of southern India offices. H & C was not the only British trading company to diversify into engineering. Harper Gilfillan, for example, had significant works in Malaysia. Saham, British Industrial Development, p. 113.
50. GL, records of HLE Ltd.
51. GL, typescript history of Colombo branch, produced c. 1985 by the chairman of what was by then called Harrisons Engineering (Colombo) Ltd.
52. Between 1961 and 1979 Wilkinson Rubber Linatex Ltd contributed on average seven per cent of the total pre-tax profit of the H & C group. GL, annual occounts of WRL Ltd.
53. GL, records of Durham Raw Materials Ltd.
54. H & C, One Hundred Years, p.20.
55. E.T. Penrose, The Theory of the Growth of the Firm (Oxford, 1959).
56. Guthrie Corporation collection, library of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Miller and Hay were the two key figures on the commercial side in the important and long-running negotiations involving the British government over the inter-war international regulation of rubber output. See J.H. Drabble, Malayan Rubber: The Interwar Years (London, 1991), and Tate, RGA History, pp.320-85.
57. Guthrie Corporation collection, library of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Miller and Hay were the two key figures on the commercial side in the important and long-running negotiations involving the British government over the inter-war international regulation of rubber output. See J.H. Drabble, Malayan Rubber: The Interwar Years (London, 1991), and Tate, RGA History, pp.320-85.
58. GL, A short typescript history of Harrisons & Crosfield in Canada by H.J. Williams, a director of all the Harrisons & Crosfield companies in North America. Between 1947 and 1977 H & C (Canada) Ltd contributed on average six per cent of total H & C pre-tax group profits. GL, annual accounts of H & C (Canada) Ltd.
59. GL, A short typescript history of Harrisons & Crosfield in Canada by H.J. Williams, a director of all the Harrisons & Crosfield companies in North America. Between 1947 and 1977 H & C (Canada) Ltd contributed on average six per cent of total H & C pre-tax group profits. GL, annual accounts of H & C (Canada) Ltd.
60. S. Cunyngham-Brown, The Traders (London, 1971), p.308; Drabble and Drake, 'British Agency Houses', pp.312-13.
61. S. Cunyngham-Brown, The Traders (London, 1971), p.308; Drabble and Drake, 'British Agency Houses', pp.312-13.
62. Annual reports and formal statements to the shareholders of acquired companies, late 1960s, Companies House file no. 840899 (Guthrie Corporation); Drabble and Drake, 'British Agency Houses', pp.318-19.
63. Annual reports and formal statements to the shareholders of acquired companies, late 1960s, Companies House file no. 840899 (Guthrie Corporation); Drabble and Drake, 'British Agency Houses', pp.318-19.
64. J.H. Drabble, Rubber in Malaya, 1876-1922 (Kuala Lumpur, 1973).
65. Nickalls, Great Enterprise, p.156.
66. Misra, 'Entrepreneurial Decline', provides a strong restatement of this thesis for inter-war India.
67. GL, H & C annual reports for 1915-16, 1918.
68. GL, London office files of correspondence with branches.
69. GL, typescript of lecture given in January 1981 at London head office on the company's reporting systems to visiting students.
70. GL, typescript of January 1981 lecture.
71. GL, correspondence files of associated companies, for example, HLE Ltd; board minutes of plantation companies.
72. GL, List of secretarial companies and their directors in 1960.
73. GL, Sabah Timber annual report for 1977. Some of the firms acquired were subsidiaries of the companies whose shares Sabah Timber purchased.
74. GL, Notes of a meeting held on Wednesday 10 Feb. 1932.
75. GL, Notes on Insurance Department by J.C. Cuthbert, November 1949.
76. This point is made explicitly by White, Business, pp.52-4, and chapter 6, which contains the case study of the Borneo Company. For other studies of the Borneo Company, see H. Longhurst, The Borneo Story (London, 1956); Jones , Two Centuries; and for Guthries, Cunyngham-Brown, The Traders. For the decline of the British managing agencies in India, see Misra, 'Entrepreneurial Decline', and B.R. Tomlinson, 'British Business in India, 1860-1970', in R.P.T. Davenport-Hines and G. Jones (eds), British Business in Asia since 1860 (Cambridge, 1989).
77. This point is made explicitly by White, Business, pp.52-4, and chapter 6, which contains the case study of the Borneo Company. For other studies of the Borneo Company, see H. Longhurst, The Borneo Story (London, 1956); Jones , Two Centuries; and for Guthries, Cunyngham-Brown, The Traders. For the decline of the British managing agencies in India, see Misra, 'Entrepreneurial Decline', and B.R. Tomlinson, 'British Business in India, 1860-1970', in R.P.T. Davenport-Hines and G. Jones (eds), British Business in Asia since 1860 (Cambridge, 1989).
78. This point is made explicitly by White, Business, pp.52-4, and chapter 6, which contains the case study of the Borneo Company. For other studies of the Borneo Company, see H. Longhurst, The Borneo Story (London, 1956); Jones , Two Centuries; and for Guthries, Cunyngham-Brown, The Traders. For the decline of the British managing agencies in India, see Misra, 'Entrepreneurial Decline', and B.R. Tomlinson, 'British Business in India, 1860-1970', in R.P.T. Davenport-Hines and G. Jones (eds), British Business in Asia since 1860 (Cambridge, 1989).
79. This point is made explicitly by White, Business, pp.52-4, and chapter 6, which contains the case study of the Borneo Company. For other studies of the Borneo Company, see H. Longhurst, The Borneo Story (London, 1956); Jones , Two Centuries; and for Guthries, Cunyngham-Brown, The Traders. For the decline of the British managing agencies in India, see Misra, 'Entrepreneurial Decline', and B.R. Tomlinson, 'British Business in India, 1860-1970', in R.P.T. Davenport-Hines and G. Jones (eds), British Business in Asia since 1860 (Cambridge, 1989).
80. This point is made explicitly by White, Business, pp.52-4, and chapter 6, which contains the case study of the Borneo Company. For other studies of the Borneo Company, see H. Longhurst, The Borneo Story (London, 1956); Jones , Two Centuries; and for Guthries, Cunyngham-Brown, The Traders. For the decline of the British managing agencies in India, see Misra, 'Entrepreneurial Decline', and B.R. Tomlinson, 'British Business in India, 1860-1970', in R.P.T. Davenport-Hines and G. Jones (eds), British Business in Asia since 1860 (Cambridge, 1989).
81. This point is made explicitly by White, Business, pp.52-4, and chapter 6, which contains the case study of the Borneo Company. For other studies of the Borneo Company, see H. Longhurst, The Borneo Story (London, 1956); Jones , Two Centuries; and for Guthries, Cunyngham-Brown, The Traders. For the decline of the British managing agencies in India, see Misra, 'Entrepreneurial Decline', and B.R. Tomlinson, 'British Business in India, 1860-1970', in R.P.T. Davenport-Hines and G. Jones (eds), British Business in Asia since 1860 (Cambridge, 1989).
82. Saham, British Industrial Development, p. 120.
83. ROCE indicates the degree of efficiency and effectiveness on the part of those who control a business in the utilisation of the funds which have been invested long term in it. It therefore provides a reasonable indicator of success in management. However, care is required in the interpretation of the data. ROCE figures are affected by inflation because of the accounting convention of stating at historic cost fixed assets and stocks, which together normally form the largest element in capital employed. Costs of fixed assets in particular will largely reflect prices ruling many years previously, in contrast to profit for the year which will reflect sales at recent prices. Thus, in the calculation of ROCE, the numerator will be inflated relative to the denominator, creating inflated ROCE figures. As Britain had high inflation rates for much of the 1970s, high ROCE figures for any company will exaggerate improvements in performance in real terms.
84. The net assets as revealed in the companies' annual accounts (and used in the calculation of ROCE in Table 2) for Harrisons & Crosfield, the Borneo Company and Finlays were in 1923 respectively £2.5. £1.5 and £3.9 million; the figures for 1938 were £3.1, £1.1 and £4.5 million.
85. GL, Stock Exchange company annual reports.
86. Saham, British Industrial Development, p. 127, notes, however, that trading companies generally in Malaysia achieved large profit increases during the period 1967-71.
87. GL, annual reports of H & C, Borneo Company (Ms 27185) and Anglo-Thai Corporation (Ms 27013). Annual reports of the Guthrie Corporation Ltd, formed 1965. Royal Commission on the distribution of income and wealth, report no.2 (HMSO, 1976), pp.51, 166. The RC data cover 1948-71 for ROCE and 1963-74 for dividends.
88. GL, annual reports of H & C, Borneo Company (Ms 27185) and Anglo-Thai Corporation (Ms 27013). Annual reports of the Guthrie Corporation Ltd, formed 1965. Royal Commission on the distribution of income and wealth, report no.2 (HMSO, 1976), pp.51, 166. The RC data cover 1948-71 for ROCE and 1963-74 for dividends.
89. Guthrie Corporation Ltd, annual reports, 1966-80.
90. J.-J. van Helten and G. Jones, 'British Business in Malaysia and Singapore since the 1870s', in Davenport-Hines and Jones (eds.), British Business, pp. 184-6.
91. H & C, One Hundred Years, p.27.
92. Boustead and Sime Darby both had complex organisational structures in the early 1970s, but in neither were cross-shareholdings nearly as prominent as at H & C. Saham, British Industrial Development, pp. 118-19.
93. Recognition of the need to employ non-Europeans as other than plantation workers or clerks had come much earlier than consideration of local ownership. As early as 1945 Egmont-0 Hake, a director of Harrisons & Crosfield (Malaya) Ltd and of several plantation companies, had openly advocated 'the gradual promotion of Asiatic supervisors to the highest ranks of management'. H.B. Egmont-Hake, The New Malaya and You (London, 1945), p.101. In practice, a combination of racism and the difficulty of recruiting suitably qualified staff resulted in a rather slow pace of localisation until the 1970s. Even at the end of that decade Harrisons & Crosfield had almost no local directors on the boards of its major Malaysian rubber company affiliates. See Drabble and Drake, 'British Agency Houses', pp.321-2; White, Business, pp.243-5; Lim Mah Hui , Ownership and Control, p. 107.
94. Recognition of the need to employ non-Europeans as other than plantation workers or clerks had come much earlier than consideration of local ownership. As early as 1945 Egmont-0 Hake, a director of Harrisons & Crosfield (Malaya) Ltd and of several plantation companies, had openly advocated 'the gradual promotion of Asiatic supervisors to the highest ranks of management'. H.B. Egmont-Hake, The New Malaya and You (London, 1945), p.101. In practice, a combination of racism and the difficulty of recruiting suitably qualified staff resulted in a rather slow pace of localisation until the 1970s. Even at the end of that decade Harrisons & Crosfield had almost no local directors on the boards of its major Malaysian rubber company affiliates. See Drabble and Drake, 'British Agency Houses', pp.321-2; White, Business, pp.243-5; Lim Mah Hui , Ownership and Control, p. 107.
95. Recognition of the need to employ non-Europeans as other than plantation workers or clerks had come much earlier than consideration of local ownership. As early as 1945 Egmont-0 Hake, a director of Harrisons & Crosfield (Malaya) Ltd and of several plantation companies, had openly advocated 'the gradual promotion of Asiatic supervisors to the highest ranks of management'. H.B. Egmont-Hake, The New Malaya and You (London, 1945), p.101. In practice, a combination of racism and the difficulty of recruiting suitably qualified staff resulted in a rather slow pace of localisation until the 1970s. Even at the end of that decade Harrisons & Crosfield had almost no local directors on the boards of its major Malaysian rubber company affiliates. See Drabble and Drake, 'British Agency Houses', pp.321-2; White, Business, pp.243-5; Lim Mah Hui , Ownership and Control, p. 107.
96. Recognition of the need to employ non-Europeans as other than plantation workers or clerks had come much earlier than consideration of local ownership. As early as 1945 Egmont-0 Hake, a director of Harrisons & Crosfield (Malaya) Ltd and of several plantation companies, had openly advocated 'the gradual promotion of Asiatic supervisors to the highest ranks of management'. H.B. Egmont-Hake, The New Malaya and You (London, 1945), p.101. In practice, a combination of racism and the difficulty of recruiting suitably qualified staff resulted in a rather slow pace of localisation until the 1970s. Even at the end of that decade Harrisons & Crosfield had almost no local directors on the boards of its major Malaysian rubber company affiliates. See Drabble and Drake, 'British Agency Houses', pp.321-2; White, Business, pp.243-5; Lim Mah Hui , Ownership and Control, p. 107.
97. GL, H & C annual reports; Extel Statistical Services, Capital Record. H & C was able to pay very high dividends at this time (Figure 3). By contrast, Guthries had acquired all the shares in their dozen quoted rubber and tin companies as early as 1965; Companies House file no. 840899 (Guthrie Corporation).
98. GL, H & C annual reports; Extel Statistical Services, Capital Record. H & C was able to pay very high dividends at this time (Figure 3). By contrast, Guthries had acquired all the shares in their dozen quoted rubber and tin companies as early as 1965; Companies House file no. 840899 (Guthrie Corporation).
99. GL and Companies House, annual reports for 1982-97; Financial Times, 22 Oct. 1997.
100. GL and Companies House, annual reports for 1982-97; Financial Times, 22 Oct. 1997.