Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Abbreviations used in Notes
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part One Nineteenth-century Developments
- Part Two Amalgamation, Diversification and Rationalisation, 1903–39
- 8 Multi-plant Operations and Managerial Difficulties, 1900–14
- 9 Problems of Commercial Integration: Fairfield's and Coventry Ordnance Works
- 10 Birkenhead Operations from 1903 to World War I
- 11 World War I and the Post-war Boom: The Impact on Steel of High Activity, Plant Expansion and New Technology
- 12 Shipbuilding, 1914–29
- 13 Economic Depression and the Steel Trade in the 1920s
- 14 Cammell Laird Rolling Stock
- 15 Amalgamation and Rationalisation: The Formation and Early Development of the ESC
- 16 Economic Efficiency and Social Costs: The Closure of the Penistone Works
- 17 Reconstruction and Recovery at the ESC, 1932–39
- 18 Shipbuilding in the Great Depression and the 1930s
- Part Three Culmination and Decline, 1940–93
- Bibliography
- Index
11 - World War I and the Post-war Boom: The Impact on Steel of High Activity, Plant Expansion and New Technology
from Part Two - Amalgamation, Diversification and Rationalisation, 1903–39
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Abbreviations used in Notes
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part One Nineteenth-century Developments
- Part Two Amalgamation, Diversification and Rationalisation, 1903–39
- 8 Multi-plant Operations and Managerial Difficulties, 1900–14
- 9 Problems of Commercial Integration: Fairfield's and Coventry Ordnance Works
- 10 Birkenhead Operations from 1903 to World War I
- 11 World War I and the Post-war Boom: The Impact on Steel of High Activity, Plant Expansion and New Technology
- 12 Shipbuilding, 1914–29
- 13 Economic Depression and the Steel Trade in the 1920s
- 14 Cammell Laird Rolling Stock
- 15 Amalgamation and Rationalisation: The Formation and Early Development of the ESC
- 16 Economic Efficiency and Social Costs: The Closure of the Penistone Works
- 17 Reconstruction and Recovery at the ESC, 1932–39
- 18 Shipbuilding in the Great Depression and the 1930s
- Part Three Culmination and Decline, 1940–93
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
World War I was accompanied by major changes in the steel industry. Total war produced higher profits but huge, short-term strains. There was a major expansion of capacity, and a shake-up in long-established methods. Equally importantly, it marked the first large-scale involvement of government in the industry, initiating and helping finance extensions, and in control. Associated with these changes were the beginnings, at least, of industry-wide planning. The wartime boom was a prelude to the disasters of the 1920s. That decade brought a falling away of government interest and commitment, before dire commercial necessities brought their reassertion.
After the first few months of war it became clear that Laird's and the other established armament firms would be unable to meet the needs of the times unless major changes were made. In spring 1915 munitions shortages at the front caused a crisis, the creation of the Ministry of Munitions and greater pressure on the companies. By midsummer the Sheffield, Penistone and Birkenhead works had been declared controlled establishments under the provisions of a Munitions of War Act, which had received royal assent on 2 July. That month Cammell's agreed to build and manage a ‘national factory’ to produce in its first phase 8,000 shells a week. The company chose and bought a site at Nottingham; the government provided the capital for construction of the plant. (In contrast to other firms Cammell's refused to take commission on either its erection or its management.) Experience there showed how suddenly armament requirements could change and that apparently unlimited investment funds could be made available under the urgencies of war.
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- Steel, Ships and MenCammell Laird, 1824-1993, pp. 173 - 183Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1998