Mackenzie, Angus (2013) West of Scotland industrial and commercial elites and their social, political and economic influence in the inter-war years. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5033/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from 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 Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] West of Scotland industrial and commercial elites and their social, political and economic influence in the inter-war years Angus Mackenzie Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Humanities College of Arts University of Glasgow September 2013 ABSTRACT Scotland struggled to come to terms with the collapse in the heavy industries in the early 1920s and the prolonged period of economic dislocation which followed. The pervasive sense that this was a nation in decline sapped self-confidence. This thesis examines the response of the leading West of Scotland industrialists to the extended inter-war trade depression. Focusing on their championing of a series of self-help initiatives firmly rooted in Scotland itself, the thesis reimagines Graeme Morton’s work on Unionist Nationalism for the more challenging conditions of 1930s Scotland, introducing a much stronger economic dimension to Morton’s original argument. Echoing Morton, the rationalisation of the staple industries and the creation of new institutions to aid recovery owed much to the associational culture of West of Scotland business. The Scottish National Development Council and the Scottish Economic Committee - two significant stepping-stones in the rise of corporatist planning - represented a confident assertion of a distinctly Scottish voice and provided a link between business and the increasingly autonomous Scottish Office. The explicit articulation of a Scottish national interest within the parameters of the existing union and imperial relationships sat easily with the progressive, pro-statist views of many inter-war Unionists, helping to consolidate the consensus within ‘middle opinion’. The thesis focuses on the actions of a trio of West of Scotland industrialists: Lord Weir of Eastwood, Sir James Lithgow and Sir Steven Bilsland. It will be suggested that their advocacy of Scottish solutions for Scottish problems represents a more muscular and far-reaching economic Unionist Nationalism which transcends the narrow vision of Morton’s nineteenth century urban Scotland, but also questions Colin Kidd’s dismissal of early twentieth century unionism as ‘banal’. CONTENTS Introduction 7 Chapter One: The Great War and the post-war slump 31 Chapter Two: Politics 70 Chapter Three: Rationalisation 109 Chapter Four: Scottish National Development Council 154 Chapter Five: Scottish Economic Committee 193 Chapter Six: Paternalism and Religious intervention 236 Conclusion 271 Appendix One: Scottish National Development Council, October 1931 279 Appendix Two: Scottish Economic Committee, April 1936 280 Bibliography 281 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Catriona Macdonald and Dr Duncan Ross, for their extensive help and support, particularly in the final stages of completing the thesis. Their continued enthusiasm and willingness to read various drafts, together with their helpful comments and suggestions, ensured that the final writing-up stage was extremely productive. Dr Irene Maver, my supervisor in the early stages of the project, supported and encouraged my burgeoning interest in inter-war politics and the machinations of business community, and shared her encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Glaswegian. My examiners, Professor Richard Finlay and Dr Jim Phillips, ensured that the viva was a stress-free and invigorating experience, and their thoughtful observations and suggestions have been incorporated within the final text. I would also like to thank various members of staff in both History and Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow for employing me as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, in particular Dr Karin Bowie, Dr Mark Freeman, Dr Annmarie Hughes, Dr Martin Macgregor and Dr Steven Reid. Throughout the research, I have been made welcome in various repositories, but a special debt is owed to the staff in the Scottish Business Archive in Glasgow and the Bank of England Archive in London, who generously shared their knowledge, helping me to find material that might otherwise have been missed. Beyond the University, I must thank friends and family for their perseverance as Lithgow and Weir took over my life, and look forward to returning to something akin to normality. My parents have provided all manner of support, from infusions of capital to my mother’s proofreading of the final draft, and I count myself very lucky to have come from a home filled with books, where ideas and argument were encouraged. ABREVIATIONS USED THROUGHOUT THE TEXT BID Bankers Industrial Development CSA Clyde Shipbuilders’ Association EEF Engineering Employers’ Federation FBI Federation of British Industry GCA Glasgow City Archives GCURC Glasgow Caledonian University Research Collection GGGL Glasgow Good Governance League GUA Glasgow University Archives ILP Independent Labour Party MRC Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick NAVSR National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights NCEO National Confederation of Employers’ Associations NCL New College Library, University of Edinburgh NLS National Library of Scotland NFBTO National Federation of Building Trade Operatives NPS National Party of Scotland NRS National Records of Scotland NSS National Shipbuilders’ Securities Ltd NRA National Archives, Kew NWETF North West Engineering Trade Federation SARA Special Areas Reconstruction Association SCI Scottish Council on Industry SCWS Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society SDC Scottish Development Council SEC Scottish Economic Committee SEF Shipbuilders Employers Federation SHRA Scottish Home Rule Association SIE Scottish Industrial Estates Ltd SMT Securities Management Trust SNDC Scottish National Development Council 7 Introduction 1: Confronting decline This thesis examines the response of the leading West of Scotland industrialists to the sustained period of economic dislocation between 1920 and 1939. It will be argued that Scotland’s inter-war business leaders - Unionists to a man - exploited their business, banking and political connections in Scotland and in London, to produce a distinctly Scottish response to the economic crisis. By placing themselves at the heart of efforts to build a recovery, it will be suggested that in addition to working positively to reshape the Scottish economy, there was also a strong defensive element to their work as they sought to counter the electoral successes of the Labour Party after 1922. The gradual evolution of corporatist planning in a Scottish context and the growing autonomy of the Scottish Office suggests an economic Unionist Nationalism which was more muscular and far-reaching than Graeme Morton’s original examination of nineteenth-century Scotland suggests or would allow.1 Throughout the thesis it is the intention to demonstrate that Scotland’s industrialists actively sought a distinctively Scottish solution for the country’s economic woes during the inter-war period, moderating their instinctive hostility to collaborative working in the face of a series of threats to their business milieu. Economic dislocation is naturally in the foreground throughout the thesis, but it was the sense of national decline and the widespread perception that Scotland was being disproportionately affected by the global depression compared with other parts of the UK which added urgency 1 G. Morton, Unionist Nationalism (East Linton: Tuckwell, 1999); G. Morton, ‘Scottish Rights and ‘centralisation’ in the mid-nineteenth century’ in Nations and Nationalism, 2 (2) 1996, pp257-279. 8 to the search for economic revival.2 The collapse of the export-orientated staple industries of the West of Scotland immediately after the Great War was a grievous blow.3 The economic slump affected the very industries which had underpinned pre-war confidence and the reversal in fortunes had a profound psychological impact across Scottish society at a time when memories of the recent conflict remained raw. In a direct echo of Morton’s work on Edinburgh, the response to the slump was centred on the well-developed associational culture of West of Scotland business, and throughout the inter-war period, the key interventions came not from the state, but from business itself. In attempting to revive industry through voluntary, semi-independent bodies like the Scottish National Development Council (SNDC) and Scottish Economic Committee (SEC), the big personalities of Scottish business were able to create a coalition of concerned individuals from across civil society, albeit one which they were able to dominate. The thesis focuses on the three most active individuals: Lord Weir of Eastwood (1877-1957), Sir James Lithgow (1883-1952) and Sir Steven Bilsland (1892-1970). A wide range of archival material has been consulted in writing this thesis. The richest source has been Lord Weir’s papers which form a key element of the Scottish Business Archive, housed at the University of Glasgow. This collection covers Weir’s business and political activities, illustrating the breadth of his interests and his extensive connections across business and politics. Fortuitously, the Weir collection also fills in many of the gaps left by the more limited Lithgow papers which are also held in Glasgow University. Research on the 2 R.J. Finlay, ‘National identity in crisis: politicians, intellectuals and the “End of Scotland”, 1920-1939’, History 79 (1994), pp242-259. 3 R.H. Campbell, The Rise and Fall of Scottish Industry (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1980), pp151-164; A. Slaven, The Development of the West of Scotland, 1750-1960 (London: Routledge, 1975), pp185-198. 9 rationalisation of the steel and shipbuilding industries was aided by material held in the Securities Management Trust and Bankers Industrial Development files within the Bank of England Archive in London. The National Archives in Kew and the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh were also consulted for material relating to the Scottish Office, the Board of Trade and the Scottish Economic Committee. Material on the Church of Scotland, George MacLeod and the Iona Community was located within the Manuscript Collection of the National Library of Scotland and in New College Library, Edinburgh. Newspapers, journals, pamphlets and magazines of the period were consulted in the repositories already mentioned and in the Watt Library in Greenock, Motherwell Heritage Centre and Glasgow University Library Special Collections. The thesis takes a broadly chronological approach to the inter-war period, and the first chapter examines the impact and legacy of the Great War and the post-war collapse of shipbuilding and steel. The second chapter looks at politics, from the industrial politics of the national employers’ organisations and the fear of Labour domination of Glasgow Town Council, to the nascent Home Rule movement of the early 1930s which, while failing to make any electoral breakthrough, provoked a strong reaction from the business community. Chapter three discusses rationalisation. The public perception of Lithgow in particular was shaped by reaction to the closure of steelworks or shipyards and as he used his extensive resources to effect further mergers within Scottish industry, he became the focus of opposition not just to rationalisation, but to the seemingly intractable sense of decline within Scotland. High-profile closures like the 1930 rationalisation of the Beardmore yard at Dalmuir on the Clyde fitted the prevailing narrative of ‘the drift southwards of industry’ and the most active of the 1930s industrialists - Lithgow and Sir Steven Bilsland - were in the invidious