 Public governance of private munitions businesses in regional Britain, the case of Wales, 1938 to 1945Leon Gooberman Business History, 2024, vol. 66, issue 1, 201-220 Abstract: This article analyses the public governance of the private British munitions industry from 1938 to 1945. It uses a case study of Wales to make two arguments. One is that public regional governance was contested and slow to emerge, although ultimately successful. Governance was initially centralised and uncoordinated as three supply ministries competed to source munitions. Floorspace controls were introduced in 1941 but ministries rebuffed other attempts to co-ordinate regional procurement. However, capacity problems throughout Britain incentivised co-operation from 1942, when a new Ministry of Production created effective regional structures. The other argument is that business activity in Wales intensified as structures emerged. Mobilisation focussed initially on concentrations of secondary manufacturing, but Wales was dominated by primary industries and few businesses were producing munitions by mid-1940. Nevertheless, air raids and capacity shortages elsewhere prompted an influx controlled increasingly by regional structures that governed a munitions industry dominated by private businesses. Date: 2024 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:bushst:v:66:y:2024:i:1:p:201-220 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2021.1979520 Access Statistics for this article Business History is currently edited by Professor John Wilson and Professor Steven Toms More articles in Business History from Taylor & Francis Journals |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.