Mackenzie, Angus

312 Pages·2014·1.95 MB·English

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/

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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