The Business of Armaments
Armstrongs, Vickers and the International Arms Trade, 1855–1955

Explores Britain's most prominent armaments firms and their relationships with the British Government and foreign states from 1855 to 1955.

Joanna Spear (Author)

9781009297523, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 January 2023

314 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.8 cm, 0.72 kg

How did Britain's most prominent armaments firms, Armstrongs and Vickers, build their businesses and sell armaments in Britain and overseas from 1855 to 1955? Joanna Spear presents a comparative analysis of these firms and considers the relationships they built with the British Government and foreign states. She reveals how the firms developed and utilized independent domestic strategies and foreign policies against the backdrop of imperial expansion and the two world wars. Using extensive new research, this study examines the challenges the two firms faced in making domestic and international sales including the British Government's commitment to laissez faire policies, prejudices within the British elite against those in trade, and departmental resistance to dealing with private firms. It shows the suite of strategies and tactics that the firms developed to overcome these obstacles to selling arms at home and abroad and how they built enduring relationships with states in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.

List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
List of acronyms
Introduction: British armament firms' independence and power
Part I: Selling at Home: 1. Armstrongs and Vickers become armaments firms: the challenges they faced and the strategies they developed
2. Selling armaments in Britain 1860–1900: Armstrongs rises and Vickers evolves
3. Selling Armaments in Britain 1901–1918: Vickers rises and Armstrongs responds
4. Selling armaments in Britain 1919–1935: Inter-war struggles and Vickers-Armstrongs is born
5. Selling armaments in Britain 1936–1955: Vickers-Armstrongs and the challenges of wartime and peacetime
Part II: Selling Abroad: 6. Foreign policies for selling armaments to South America
7. Foreign policies for selling armaments to Asia
8. Foreign policies for selling arms to the Ottoman Empire/Turkey
9. Conclusions: assessing Armstrongs and Vickers' independence and power vis. the British state – a military industrial complex?
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Arms trade [JWXF], International relations [JPS], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW]