Pilkington Brothers and the Glass Industry

T. C. Barker was a central figure of the postwar generation of social and economic historians, well known both within the academic profession and among the wider public. He taught Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

Reviews of the first publication: “To all the questions which an economic historian would ask of a business history, Barker has provided the answer…Capital formation and growth, business organisation, technical development, raw materials, markets, competition, prices, profits, wages, and labour relations—all these topics are dealt with in expert fashion and are knit together to form a well-integrated and balanced whole of absorbing interest.”A. E. Musson, The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 21, No. 2 “…the book shows many attractive traces of company support: an abundance of expensive plates, maps, genealogical charts, statistical tables and graphs, etc.”Jacob M. Price, The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 34, No. 1

• Introduction 1. The family background 2. The historical background to the flat glass industry in Britain 3. An unpromising start 4. The collapse of a competitor and the struggle for survival 5. The introduction of a new technique 6. Years of contrast 7. A labour crises 8. The removal of British competitors 9. Competition from Belgium and consolidation at St Helens 10. Expansion once more 11. Labour relations and welfare services in the later years of the nineteenth century 12. Colliery affairs 13. International, technical and other developments, 1900–1914 14. Epilogue, 1914–1959 Appendix 1. The Pilkington pedigree 2. Wages list for the weeks ending May 12 and 19, 1849 3. Statements issued by Pilkingtons during the labour crisis of 1845 4. Bessemer’s experiments with glass, 1841–51 5. Exports of Belgian window glass to Britain and the United States, 1850–913 6. Extract from Siemens’ furnace patent specification of 1870 7. Biographical notes on the directions of the Company 8. The early history of the Flow process: Pilkingtons’ association with the Ford Motor Company, Detroit