A global firm in a small town: Harrisons and Crosfield’s Quilon Operations between the wars

Tirthankar Roy

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper examines Harrisons and Crosfield’s Quilon operations in interwar South India to highlight the role of site-specificity in shaping global firms. Unlike most British companies headquartered in major colonial port cities, Harrisons and Crosfield established its Indian base in Quilon, a small town with strategic access to estates and backwaters but limited infrastructure. Situating the case within debates on multinational enterprise and colonial business, the paper argues that geography and foreignness were central to the firm’s longevity, shaping both opportunities and limits to expansion.

Keywords: Harrisons and Crosfield; multilocational firms; site-specificity; Travancore; British business in Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2026-05-25
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Published in Business History Review, 25, May, 2026, pp. 1-25. ISSN: 0007-6805

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