Public and Private Ownership of British Industry 1820-1990
James Foreman-Peck author Robert Millward author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:28th Apr '94
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Britain led the way for much of the world with industrial privatization during the 1980s. Yet the historical origins of the process that was being reversed have rarely been examined. This is a study of public and private ownership in industries such as railways, gas, water, electricity, and telecommunications. Industries such as these rely upon a substanial physical distribution network that `channels' their service from source to destination. They thus raise distinctive problems for government policy, as their requirement for some sort of unified system is incompatible with the coexistence of a number of competing service suppliers. Yet competition has been the traditional guarantee of `fair' and minimum prices in British industrial policy. This tension between experience and ideology provoked a variety of government policies over the last two centuries. Robert Millward and James Foreman-Peck provide a coherent and thorough economic history of the network industries, which continue to play an important role in the British economy. They trace the development of various institutional arrangements from the early nineteenth century until the end of the 1980s, and provide quantitative estimates of their performance. Their book offers a valuable historical approach to the contentious issue of privatization.
'This volume is the product of fruitful collaboration between two economic historians who have made a significant contribution to the study of public ownership in British industry from the early nineteenth century onwards. Foreman-Peck and Millward have produced a book which can be read with intellectual profit both by economic historians and economists interested in the evolution of government-industry relations where natural monopoly prevails.' Maurice Kirby, Lancaster University, Labour History Review, Vol. 59, No. 3, Winter 1994
The statistical data are new and important, and raise major issues of interpretation both of the expansion of public ownership and of the performance of network industries. * Times Higher Education Supplement *
The core of this book is formed from work previously published by Foreman-Peck and Millward, but it is particularly valuable to have it brought together...a valuable study which should encourage others to investigate further this important field. * Business History *
The impressive spectrum of contrasted examples indicate the complexities with which Foreman-Peck and Millward have chosen to grapple. Their interdisciplinary range of interests must inspire admiration ... an important, pioneering book. * Theo Barker, History Today *
This is in many ways a model book. Problems are clearly stated, the necessary information ... supplied, detailed and sometimes sophisticated calculations carried out with whatever data are available, and conclusions presented that closely reflect the numerical results. * Journal of Economic History *
This is in many ways a model book. Problems are clearly stated, the necessary information (and no more) supplied, detailed and sometimes sophisticated calculations carried out with whatever data are available, and conclusion presented that closely reflect the numerical results. * Journal of Economic History *
ISBN: 9780198203599
Dimensions: 221mm x 146mm x 29mm
Weight: 632g
408 pages