Enterprise and Technology: The German and British Steel Industries, 1865–1895 by Ulrich Wengenroth

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 405 Enterprise and Technology: The German and British Steel Industries, 1865— 1895. By Ulrich Wengenroth. Translated by Sarah Tenison. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. xiv + 293; figures, ta­ bles, notes, bibliography, index. $59.95. This is an English version of a book first published in German in 1986. The translation is fully justified, for it will permit and encour­ age a much wider readership for this superb comparative study of the relationship between business strategy and technical change. The author reveals the evolutionary paths which led to the different struc­ tures of the German and British steel industries in the three or four decades after Bessemer’s discovery freed the iron industry from pud­ dling. Organizational changes are seen to be a response to technical possibilities, which, in turn, were strongly influenced by both the availability of raw materials and market opportunities. Despite the well-known richness of the literature on the modern steel industry, it may safely be asserted that the degree of sophistica­ tion displayed in the analysis of technical change is unprecedented. Ulrich Wengenroth indicates more clearly than any of his eminent predecessors the economic implications of the modern innovations in late-19th-century steelmaking. In doing so, he demolishes the idea of British scientific or technological backwardness in this industry, and hence destroys many of the arguments on which the case for Britain’s entrepreneurial failure has hitherto rested. Donald McCloskey’s con­ clusions are seen to be correct, but for entirely the wrong reasons; the counterarguments of D. L. Burn, Robert Allen, and Steven Webb are seen to be derived from false premises or are condemned as irrelevant. Only in that, unlike their German counterparts, British steel masters failed to use their collective market power to secure concessions from the government are they culpable. It is a remarkable tour de force. Wengenroth’s observations carry conviction because of the sheer depth of his technical understanding, his exhaustive documentation (his use of both British and German business records is admirable), and the coherence of the various strands of his argument. For exam­ ple, his emphasis on the American contribution to speeding up the process of steel conversion has never been given proper credit in European studies; and his clear analysis of the structure of the de­ mand for steel in Germany, so very different from that in Great Britain, is of great importance. It would be invidious to single out further specific examples, but the influence of the tariffs that con­ fronted British steel exporters in determining the nature of their sales is worth reaffirming because of its comparative neglect. When the British iron and steel industry is criticized for sending ingots and semis abroad (and for not further processing such products them­ selves), Wengenroth makes it plain that demand conditions and the existence of customs barriers frequently gave them no alternative. A simple point, but one inadequately recognized in the literature. 406 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE This is an important book which will provoke thought and contin­ ued debate. Because every page is dense with carefully marshaled information, it does not make for easy reading, though the transla­ tion—otherwise apparently admirable—may marginally have com­ pounded this difficulty by occasional misconceptions in technical terms. Furthermore, many cost comparisons would have been more meaningful had a guide (however crude) been provided to contempo­ rary sterling/mark exchange rates. Cambridge University Press is to be congratulated on making the book available in English and—to hell with the trouble and expense—putting the footnotes where they should be, at the bottom of the relevant pages. It is a pity that the author did not employ the opportunity presented by this English version to comment on the various recent contributions to the history of steel (e.g., Kenneth Barraclough’s important study, Steelmaking, 1850—1900 [London: Institute of Metals, 1990]) that have appeared since the mid-1980s. No one could have done so with greater authority. Peter L. Payne Dr. Payne, professor of economic history at the University of Aberdeen, is the author of Colvilles and the Scottish Steel Industry (Oxford, 1979), and Growth and Contrac­ tion: Scottish Industry...