The production and consumption of bar iron in early modern England and Wales

Peter King

An estimate made of the bar iron production in England shows two periods when production grew rapidly, 1540-1620 and 1785-1810.  Both of these were related to the adoption of new technology – the finery forge in the first case, and potting and stamping and then puddling in the second.  Imports of iron from Spain declined sharply after 1540, but those from Sweden became significant from the mid-seventeenth century, and those from Russia after 1730.  Consumption grew rapidly in the late sixteenth century, and again during the eighteenth.  Hence, the industrial revolution was the culmination of a long period of growth.

Article 2:

Making profits in wartime: corporate profits, inequality, and GDP in Germany during the First World War

Joerg Baten and Rainer Schulz

This article reconsiders, and rejects, Kocka’s (1973) hypothesis that a strong income redistribution from workers to capital owners occurred in Germany during the First World War.  A small number of firms profited from the war, but the majority experienced a decline in real income, similar to the decline in workers’ real wages.  This finding also has important implications for the political history of the Weimar Republic.  The authors also use their figures to improve German GDP estimates for the war period, since their sample makes it possible to estimate private service sector development.  Economic indicators were worse for the war year of 1917 than previously believed.

Article 3:

Fattening children or fattening farmers? School milk in Britain, 1921-1941

Peter J Atkins

The introduction of school milk in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century was a relatively slow process.  This article seeks to understand the state and private sector initiatives in the light of four issues: nutrition, political factors, problems in the dairy industry, and the moulding of the consumers of the future.  The main thresholds were 1927, when the National Milk Publicity Council began to promote contacts between schools and their local suppliers in support of voluntary milk clubs; 1934, when the Milk Marketing Board took over the Milk in Schools Scheme on behalf of the government; and 1941, when the Board of Education encouraged Local Education Authorities to achieve participation that was as close as possible to 100 per cent.  Overall, the nutritional benefits of school milk are debatable, possibly even negative in those areas where it replaced other foods; but the dairy industry did well, creating new markets at a time of depression.  After the war school milk reached the zenith of its popularity.

Article 4:

The film business in the United States and Britain during the 1930s

John Sedgwick and Michael Pokorny

Film was a most important product in the lives of the people during the 1930s.  This article sets out to analyse the underlying economic arrangements of the film industries of the US and Britain during the decade in producing and diffusing this commodity type to the population at large.  It finds a highly competitive industry that was built around showing films that audiences wanted to see, irrespective of the extent of vertical integration.  It also examines the nature of the relationship between the two industries and finds an asymmetry between the popularity of British films in the American market and that of American films in the British market.  The explanation offered is that the efforts of British firms in the American market were not sufficiently sustained to make a significant impact on American audiences.

Article 5:

European integration and corporate restructuring: the strategy of Unilever, c.1957-1990

Peter Miskell and Geoffrey Jones

While much has been written about the politics of European integration, discussion about the role of business in this process has been largely confined to lobbying activities.  This article focuses on the business reaction to European integration.  It highlights the constraints facing one of Europe’s largest firms in building a regional detergents business.  These included divergences in market demand and political obstacles to rationalization, but more serious was a corporate culture based around local decision making and consensus.  The study demonstrates that a full understanding of the European integration process must incorporate a firm-level analysis of how Europe-wide businesses were built after 1957.