Business structure, busines culture, and the industrial district : The Potteries, c. 1850- 1900. POPP, Andrew Derek Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/3099/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. 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AND THE INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT: THE POTTERIES, c.1850-1900. Andrew Derek Popp A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 1997 ABSTRACT. This study examines the growth and development of the North Staffordshire pottery industry in the second half of the nineteenth century. The pottery industry of the late nineteenth century has been little studied by business historians and this thesis makes a valuable contribution to our empirical knowledge of the industry. Response to change and competitive challenge is examined at the level of the firm and of the industry as a whole, with careful attention paid to the evolution and operation of localized business networks. A framework within which to explore these issues is developed by, firstly, considering how theories of business strategy, business culture, and the industrial district may be used to inform one another. Secondly, the business structure of the pottery industry in North Staffordshire is reconstructed for the period c. 1860-1900. The structural characteristics thus revealed are related to the organizational structures of firms in the Potteries. The industry was characterized by many competing small and medium-sized units and personal capitalism throughout the period. Strategic responses to increased competition and falling prices evolved very gradually and remained incomplete at the close of the period. Mechanization had barely commenced in 1870 and in 1914 many tasks within the industry were still carried out by highly skilled workers. The resource bases of the majority of firms thus complemented an emphasis in marketing strategies on wide product ranges and high quality goods. A detailed examination of such strategies is provided by a case study of the illustrious firm of Mintons Ltd. However, increasing external and internal competition rendered the effectiveness of this combination of strategies increasingly uncertain and from the late 1870s the industry was pervaded by a sense of crisis. In considering the causes of crisis contemporary opinion focused increasingly on the industry as a whole, and in particular on the structure of the industry, and on inter-firm relations within the industry and district. Patterns of integration within the industry are reconstructed, and change in those patterns outlined. It is shown that the behaviour of many firms in the Potteries became increasingly opportunistic at this time. Some of the external pressure for strategic or structural change was met not by change within the firm but by exploiting the responsiveness and flexibility of the district as a whole. However, some large firms were attempting to develop more innovative strategies and organizational structures, and it was such firms which attempted to build organizations representative of the interests of the business community in the Potteries. The failure of these attempts allows for further examination of business culture at the level of the industry and district. CONTENTS. Page. Abstract i. List of Contents ii. List of Tables iv. Acknowledgements v. 1: Introduction: Business Structure, Business Culture, & the Industrial District 1 2: The Business Structure of the North Staffordshire Pottery Industry, 1860-1900 29 3: Competitive Constraints & the Potteries 56 3:1 Prices and Costs 58 3:2 Competition 71 4: The Resource Response of Potteries Firms, 1860-1900 88 4:1 Mechanization: Timing & Extent 90 4:2 Mechanization: Reception & Impact 103 5: Strategy, Structure, & Culture: Mintons Ltd. in the Late Nineteenth Century 130 6: Distribution, Marketing, & Design 161 6:1 Three Case Studies: Copelands, Dunn, Bennett & Co., & The Empire Porcelain Co. 162 6:2 The Institutions of Distribution & Exchange 175 6:3 Markets & Resources: Co-ordination 182 6:4 Markets & Resources: Design 186 6:5 New Markets 193 7: Patterns of Integration in the Pottery Industry 205 7:1 Industry Wide Trends 206 7:2 Jesse Shirley & Sons, c. 1820-1890 216 8: ‘An Indissoluble Mutual Destiny’: Business Insitutions & the Potteries Industrial District 239 8:1 Institutional Forms in the Concept of the Industrial District 240 8:2 Institutional Developments in the Potteries, 1850-1882 244 8:3 The Social Context of Institutional Failure 252 9: Conclusion 276 Appendices 296 Bibliography 322 iii LIST OF TABLES. Page Table 2:1 A Profile of Firms in Hanley, 1862 31 Table 2:2 A Profile of Firms in Stoke-upon-Trent, 1878-9 31 Table 2:3 A Profile of Firms in Longton, 1847 32 Table 2:4 A Profile of Firms in Hanley, 1882-3 32 Table 2:5 A Profile of Firms in Stoke-upon-Trent, 1898-9 33 , JTable 2:6 Firm Size Categories by Rateable Value (RV), 1962-1898 34 Table 2:7 Size of 40 Hanley Firms, 1862 34 Table 2:8 Size of 40 Longton Firms, 1847 34 Table 2:9 Size of Hanley Firms, 1862-1882 35 Table 2:10 Size of Stoke-upon-Trent Firms, 1878-1898 35 Table 2:11 A Guideline to Industrial Concentration Ratios 36 Table 2:12 Estimates of Industrial Concentration in Hanley, 1862-1882 37 Table 2:13 Estimates of Industrial Concentration in Stoke-upon-Trent, 1878-1898 37 Table 2:14 Biographical History of 66 Firms in Hanley in 1882 39 Table 2:15 Forms of Property Occupation Amongst 66 Hanley Firms in 1882 45 Table 2:16 Size of Firms and Form of Occupancy in Longton, 1847 45 Table 3:1 British Ceramic Exports by Value, 1878-1900 60 Table 3:2 The Balance in Trade in Ceramics, 1883-7 & 1893-7 75 Table 4:1 Female Proportion of Industry Workforce, 1834-1907 117 Table 5:1 Mintons, Sales, Costs, & Profits, 1876-7 140 Table 5:2 Mintons, Comparison of Sales & Value of Ware Manufactured, 1878 & 1879 141 Table 5:3 Mintons, Comparative Statement of the% of Expenses on Ware Manufactured, & Summary of Sales, 1884-1894 143 Table 5:4 Mintons, Balance Sheet, Report of the Directors, 1892 152 Table 7:1 Size of Ancillary Firms in Hanley, 1862-1882 208 Table 7:2 Estimates of Industrial Concentration Amongst Ancillary Firms in Hanley, 1862-1882 209 Table 7:3 Biographical History of 39 Ancillary Firms in Hanley in 1882 214 Table 8:1 Membership of the Potteries Chamber of Commerce, 1866 258 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish firstly to acknowledge the patience, trenchant advice, and encouragement I have been given by my supervisors, Mr. Roger Lloyd-Jones and Dr. Myrddin Lewis. I would like to thank Dr. Mick Worboys for his support. Cheers to Mark Eason and Tim Willis, fellow postgraduate students, for their ideas, encouragement, and humour. Thanks also to Dr. Mike Cronin for being prepared to proof read my transcript, and to Professor Peter Cain and Angela Wilson. I am also grateful to the trustees of the Paul Nunn Memorial Fund for their very generous grant. I acknowledge also the kind assistance given by the staff of the Horace Barks Reference Library, Hanley, by the Shirley family, by the Pinfold and Bennett families, and by Mrs Jean Jones, archivist and curator at Mintons Ltd. Finally, I cannot thank either my own parents or my mother and father-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Murray, enough. Without their financial and moral support I would not have been able to come so far. But, above all else, I want to thank my wife, Diane, for her love, faith, and encouragement. Thank you for putting up with me and it. Last, but not least, I offer my thanks to Theo, to whom this thesis is dedicated. 1; INTRODUCTION: BUSINESS STRUCTURE, BUSINESS CULTURE, AND THE INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT. This study explores the growth and development of the North Staffordshire pottery industry during the second half of the nineteenth century. This important industrial sector, intensely spatially clustered in an urban region universally recognized as ‘the Potteries’, faced during this period a range of pressures for change. In order to study the process of adjustment and the changing characteristics of the industry a network perspective has been adopted, which, furthermore, argues that the social dimensions of business networks are as important as the economic. The empirical backbone of the study is provided by a reconstruction of the business structure of the North Staffordshire pottery industry across four decades of the late nineteenth century.