THE HISTORY OF UNILEVER A STUDY IN ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SOCIAL CHANGE BY CHARLES WILSON Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge IN THREE VOLUMES • VOLUME I CASSELL • LONDON CONTENTS OF VOLUME I Page Author's Preface v Prologue xvii BOOK I LEVER BROTHERS PART I AN AGE OF NEW CUSTOMERS, 1851-1906 Chapter I The Social Setting 3 II The British Soap Industry before the Rise of Lever 9 III Mr. Smiles's Disciple 21 IV Limited Liability and a National Market 45 V Competition and Combination in the Soap Trade up to 1906 59 VI The Crisis of 1906 72 VII Overseas Developments 89 From Export to Manufacture 98 The New Factories 104 Summary no PART II THE DIFFICULT YEARS, 1906-14 VIII The War in the Soap Trade, 1906-14 115 ix The Conflict with Brunner Mond, 1911-14 125 Hydrogenators Limited 134 The New Alliance and the Export Trade 138 x The Enlightened Capitalist 142 Port Sunlight 144 Co-Partnership 151 XJV CONTENTS Chapter Page xi In Search of Raw Materials 159 Pacific Prelude 160 Africa 165 The Belgian Congo 167 British West Africa 180 Policy and Profits in the Tropics 183 XII Overseas Factories 188 XIII Promise and Performance in 1914 207 PART III BUSINESS IN WARTIME, I914-18 xiv introduction 213 xv The Soap Business 216 xvi The Margarine Business 227 XVII Raw Materials 234 PART IV CRISIS AND RECONSTRUCTION, 1919-29 XVIII Meridian Frenzy and its Aftermath 243 xix The First Phase of Recovery 1921-5 267 The Threefold Problem 267 Development of the Business 283 William Lever—A Summing Up 290 xx The Second Phase of Recovery: Consolidation, 1925-9 297 Appendixes following page 312 1. Diagram: The Soap-making Process 2. Graph: Lever Group Soap Trade in the United Kingdom, 1900-29 3. Statement: Capital Employed in Lever Brothers Limited, 1894-1929 4. List: The Directors of Lever Brothers Limited, 1894-1929 Index 321 THE HISTORY OF UNILEVER A STUDY IN ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SOCIAL CHANGE BY CHARLES WILSON Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge IN THREE VOLUMES • VOLUME II CASSELL • LONDON CONTENTS OF VOLUME II BOOK II JURGENS' AND VAN DEN BERGH'S PARTI FROM BUTTER TO MARGARINE, 1854-1906 Chapter Page I The Economic Revival of the Netherlands, 1815-70 7 II The Anglo-Dutch Butter Trade 14 in From Butter to Margarine, 1870-1906 24 The Jurgens Business 28 Manufacture and Raw Materials 28 The Markets 37 Organization and Finance 50 The Van den Bergh Business 55 Manufacture and Raw Materials 55 The Markets 64 Organization and Finance 77 iv The Order of Battle in 1906 85 PART II THE UNEASY PARTNERSHIP, 1907-14 v The Pooling Agreement of 1908 97 VI The Revolution in Raw Materials 101 The Changing Pattern of the Trade 101 An Essay in Colonial Development 107 Hydrogenation and its Policies HO Whaling and Whale Oil 118 VII Competition in an Expanding Market 122 Jurgens' Trade in Great Britain 123 Van den Bergh's Trade in Great Britain 128 Jurgens' and Van den Bergh's in Germany 131 The Smaller Markets 135 vili Pools, Profits, and Policies 139 ix A General View in 1914 148 CONTENTS PART III BETWEEN BELLIGERENTS, 1914-18 Chapter Page x Raw Materials and War 155 xi Markets under Siege 166 Great Britain 166 Germany 175 Holland 178 The United States 183 XII The War in Retrospect 187 PART IV WAR AND PEACE, 1919-29 XIII A Sellers' Market and How It Ended, 1918-21 195 xiv Schicht's of Aussig: The Link with the Central European Market 213 xv The Quest for Equilibrium, 1921-7 231 Problems of Management and Organization 231 Germany: The Great Money Muddle 238 Holland: Quotas and Quandaries 248 Great Britain: The Battle for the Shops 253 The Fight for the Smaller Markets 263 xvi Union in Europe, 1927-9 271 BOOK III UNILEVER—THE LAST TWENTY YEARS 1 The New Confluence 301 11 The Concern in the Crisis of the Thirties 309 Controlling the New Concern 309 Raw Materials and the United Africa Company 316 Europe—Edible Fat Products 330 Europe—Soap Products 341 The Overseas Markets 352 The Currency Problem 365 in The War Years and After : ,,4 .,,n ; 373 CONTENTS Page Epilogue 389 Appendixes following page 400 1. Diagram: The Margarine-making Process 2. Graph: Jurgens Group Margarine Production from 1891 to 1926 3. Graph: Van den Bergh Group Margarine Pro- duction from 1906 to 1926 4. Graph: Unie-Unilever Group World Edible Fats Trade from 1927 to 1938 5. Graph: Export of Margarine from Holland from 1893 to 1939 6. Diagram: Estimated Per Capita Margarine Consumption in the United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, and Denmark from 1900 to 1938 7. Graph: The Retail Price of Butter and Branded Margarine in Holland from 1900 to 1939 8. Graph: Prices of Four Margarine-making Raw Materials from 1881 to 1939 together with a graph showing the Average Annual Retail Price of Branded Margarine in Holland from 1900 to 1939 9. Graph: Prices of Four Soap-making Raw Materials from 1885 to 1939, together with a graph showing the Retail Price of Sunlight Soap from 1896 to 1939 10. Diagram: Estimated Total Soap Consumption in the United Kingdom and Eire and the Share of the Lever Group from 1900 to 1938 11. Graph: Lever Group Soap Trade in the United Kingdom from 1900 to 1940 12. Graph: Long-term Trends in the United King- dom Soap Trade from 1900 to 1940 13. Graph: Lever-Unilever Group World Soap Trade from 1913 to 1939 14. Statement: Capital Employed in Van den Berghs Limited from 1897 to 1927 CONTENTS Appendixes 15. Statement: Capital Employed in N.V. Hol- landsche Vereeniging tot Exploitatie van Margarinefabrieken (HOVEMA) from 1912 to 1927 16. Statement: Capital Employed in Van den Bergh's Fabrieken N.V. from 1919 to 1927 17. Statement: Capital Employed in Jurgens Vereen- igde Fabrieken N. V.from 1906 to 1927 18. Statement: Capital Employed in Margarine Union Limited, later Unilever Limited, from 1928 to 1936 18a. Statement: Capital Employed in Lever Brothers & Unilever Limited from 1937 to 1949 19. Statement: Capital Employed in Margarine Unie N. V., later Unilever N. V., later Lever Brothers & Unilever N.V., from 1928 to 1949 20. List: Directors of Van den Bergh's Margarine Limited, later Van den Berghs Limited, from 1895 to 1927 21. List: Directors of N. V. Hollandsche Vereeniging tot Exploitatie van Margarinefabrieken (HOVEMA)/TOM 1912 to 1927 22. List: Directors of Van den Bergh's Fabrieken N.V. from 1919 to 1927 23. List: Directors of N. V. Ant. Jurgens' Margarine Fabriek, later Anton Jurgens Vereenigde Fabrieken N.V., from 1902 to 1927 24. List: Directors of Margarine Union Limited and Margarine Unie N.V. from 1927 to 1929 25. List: Directors of Unilever Limited and Unilever N.V. from 1930 to 1937 26. List: Directors of Lever Brothers & Unilever Limited from 1937 to 1949 27. List: Directors of Lever Brothers & Unilever N.V. from 1937 to 1949 A Note on the Statistical Material used in the Appendixes to Volume II 434 Bibliography to Volumes I and II 436 Index to Volumes I and II 457 THE HISTORY OF UNILEVER A STUDY IN ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SOCIAL CHANGE BY CHARLES WILSON Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge c IN THREE VOLUMES • VOLUME III CASSELL•LONDON CONTENTS CHALLENGE AND RESPONSE IN THE POST-WAR INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 1945-I965 THE DYNAMICS OF GROWTH Chapter Page 1 Challenge and Response 3 2 Management: Its Ends and Means 27 3 Men 45 4 Research and Technology 64 5 Markets 90 6 Capital and Finance 108 Summing Up 132 CHRONICLE OF GROWTH 7 The Patterns of Growth 149 8 Africa 155 9 Unilever and the Developing Economies 169 The Unilever Board 177 Index 181.