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N. Hingley & Sons Limited - Black Country Anchor Smith and Chain Cable Maker : a study of the world's premier manufacturer of ships' anchors and cables in the period 1890-1918
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Mallin, Kenneth (1996) N. Hingley & Sons Limited - Black Country Anchor Smith and Chain Cable Maker : a study of the world's premier manufacturer of ships' anchors and cables in the period 1890-1918. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b1403864~S1
Abstract
The principal objective of this dissertation is to position the firm of
N Hingley & Sons Limited in its rightful place in the economic history
of the Black Country and of Britain in the period 1890 to 1918.
As an original contribution to knowledge of the subject, the study
focuses on a modestly sized firm of ironmakers in the Black Country that
achieved a position of almost total hegemony in the provision of anchors
and ships cables to the navies and merchant fleets of the world. This
was at a time when 90 per cent of all chain manufactured in Britain came
from the Black Country and when the bulk of the ships of the world were
constructed in British yards. The success of the firm was based on the
solid foundation built by Noah Hingley in harnessing natural resources
to a cooperative labour force under the direction of a paternalistic
family of marked goodwill.
Chapters two and three place the Hingley firm in the economic context of
the times. Particular attention is given to how well the enterprise
conforms to NrCloskey's analysis that in this period British industry
did well and did all that could have been reasonably expected of it.
Chapter four draws heavily on the Hingley archival material to establish
an outline of the firm's trading activities during the period under
review. This process is extended to the limits of the files in chapters
five, six and seven. Chapter five examines the evolution from a family
partnership to a closely held family company to a broadly held private
company demonstrating the continuing ability of the Hingley family to
adapt, developing an appropriate structure at each stage. Chapter six
examines the basis of Hingleys' hegemonic position : the excellence of
its wrought iron, its ability to fashion large diameter cable (up to
6"), and its state-of-the-art anchors. Chapter seven examines the form
and development of Hingleys' highly efficient method of marketing. This
was a method that ensured that the entirety of its production was always
sold year on year and regardless of the fluctuations of business
activity.
Chapter eight is supplementary to chapter seven and examines Hingleys'
greatest achievement. This was the firm's ability to create
combinations of manufacturers and mini-cartels in order to capture the
lion's share of the production of large diameter ships' cables and
anchors for a selected list of firms. This was not a simple rigging of
the market. Rather, it was a precondition of sustained high quality
that provided a first class product at a fair price. The navies of the
world benefited from this strategy. The provision of first class
products allied to excellent marketing was the key to Hingleys status in
the industry.
Chapter nine, dealing with relations with governments, examines the
growing levels of state control in the period under review. Beginning
with the unstoppable momentum for social and political change, the
emergence of the military-industrial complex world wide ensured a
greater degree of involvement by the state in matters of business and
commerce. In the latter stages of the chapter, the way in which the
Board coped with the command economy of the Great War is examined in the
context of the resilience of the firm in adapting to the economic and
cultural changes of the first quarter of the current century. It was
this ability that enabled it to trade on successfully for a further
fifty years after the end of this story.
My dissertation endeavours to show that Noah Hingley's firm was a fine
example of solid achievement within the parameters of what was sensible
and economically achievable in Britain at that time.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor V Naval Science > VM Naval architecture. Shipbuilding. Marine engineering |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | N. Hingley & Sons Ltd., Black Country (England) -- Economic conditions -- 19th century, Black Country (England) -- Economic conditions -- 20th century, Iron industry and trade -- England -- Black Country, Ships -- Equipment and supplies | ||||
Official Date: | November 1996 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Politics and International Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Jones, Charles A., 1949- | ||||
Extent: | xi, 314 leaves | ||||
Language: | eng |
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