Peter Wardley

Banking on change: information systems and technologies in UK high street banking, 1919–1969

This paper explores the automation of the supply of financial services on the British High Street. Its aim is to provide an historical perspective to highlight the longevity of organisational change in the financial sector and to emphasise its remarkable continuity: UK clearing banks and building societies had very specific problems and adopted particular responses. It also indicates the close correspondence of organisational change with assessments by senior bank staff of both technological opportunities and the reception to change of bank customers. Office mechanisation (from the introduction of office equipment and “mechanical banking” in the inter-war years to its culmination with computer technology in the late 1950s and beyond) was introduced alongside the development of new capabilities. Technological change eventually offered others the potential to compete in bank markets. However, time and again, and despite a broadening of the range of financial institutions which provided competing services, technical change associated with long-standing experience resulted in a strengthened competitive position for already established participants.

Women, mechanization and cost-savings in twentieth century British banks and other financial institutions

In the course of the twentieth century the British financial system was transformed. Although economic historians often prioritize the manufacturing companies that have delivered dynamic industrial performance, this drive for modernization of services provision was an essential element that underpinned the emergence of the British corporate economy and the consolidation of modern economic growth. While different components of the financial system, including the insurance companies, contributed to this development, the vanguard of the movement was provided by the ‘High Street’ banks, the familiar institutions that by the mid-century provided retail financial services on a mass scale. Each of the ‘Big Five’ high street banks (Barclays Bank; Lloyds Bank; Midland Bank; National Provincial Bank; and the Westminster Bank) realized its own strategic policy that had been designed to achieve its transformation.1

Consett Iron, 1840 to 1980 : a study in industrial location

Ironmaking in County Durham and the North-East to 1850 Cleveland ore and adjustments at inland plants railway accommodation for Consett, 1834 to 1862 1834 to 1862 Consett crisis and expansion, 1857 to 1870 early assessments for development planning re-equipment and the reorganization of the supply and marketing situation to the mid-1970s the great crisis - collapse in the finished iron trade and movement into steel production the creation of a town and a society - and the inertia of social overhead capital consideration of relocation in the 1890s Consett, 1890 to 1914 unravelling the puzzle of Consett success the great war the 1920s - a critical decade in Consett development the thirties - depression, and national and regional organization Consett iron and the redevelopment of Jarrow Consett works after world war II the new plate mill the mid-sixties - Consetts location challenged and defended Consett within the British steel corporation the progress to closure, 1980 the Jarrow of eighties? one-industry communities - private and social costs.

THE ARITHMETICKE PROJECT: A COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH STUDY OF THE DIFFUSION OF HINDU-ARABIC NUMERALS

Abstract The Arithmeticke Project comprised a series of micro-studies by Family and Community Historical Research Society members in England and Ireland designed to test the findings of Peter Wardley in respect of the diffusion of the use of Hindu-Arabic in place of Roman numerals, a spontaneous change on the part of individual scribes that occurred without official direction. Inventories for the period I540-I700 were the major primary source and attention was focussed on the monetary values recorded in the valuation column of these documents. Reflecting other work on this issue, the findings showed a significant transition in the numerals used in the valuation columns from the late I6th century to the mid-I7th, but with notable exceptions. The investigation was extended subsequently by examination of other documents, including wills, churchwardens’ accounts and estate papers. As the first such project undertaken by the Society, it has provided a blueprint for future ventures.

Debate - On the Ranking of Firms: A Response to Jeremy and Farnie

My article, on ‘The Emergence of Big Business’, has prompted a rapid reply from David Jeremy and Douglas Farnie. However, their commentary is flawed in many ways. Perhaps one good thing to emerge from this exchange, further validation of my datasets apart, is an explicit and rare consideration of methodology in business history. Certainly, a conscious appraisal of how we ‘do’ business history can be no bad thing. And given the unprecedented progress made by practitioners in the discipline over the last decade and a half, for which this Journal can claim no small share of the credit, and despite appearances to the contrary, this debate might still provide a beneficial and constructive intervention. I agree wholeheartedly with Jeremy and Farnie (hereafter, J&F) that a co-operative venture may be required to develop further the datasets under discussion. But, for such joint research to be sustained, an agreement about first principles would be essential. And it is clear from what follows that an agreement about the basic essentials of business history cannot be assumed. The differences of approach evident here, inter alia, include: the use of theory; the treatment of historical sources; the relevance of official statisticians, and the statistics they compiled; the historical reliability of expert witnesses; the application of quantitative techniques; and, even the aims and purposes of this research. In turn, these are considered below and collectively they constitute a formidable gap between the two sides of the debate represented here. In short, J&F and I appear to have a fundamental difference of opinion regarding the methodology required to sustain business history as a discipline which is vital, well-grounded and theoretically informed. In addition, I must express my gratitude to J&F for prompting this debate; it provides me with an opportunity to indicate two alterations, albeit relatively minor corrections, to the listing of the United Kingdom’s largest employers of labour which provoked this exchange: one an error of commission; the other an error of omission.

Emerging modernity in an urban setting: nineteenth-century Bristol revealed in property surveys

This article analyses the urban structure of nineteenth-century Bristol through the analysis of property surveys. Examination of a machine-readable version of a property survey for 1837 demonstrates that Bristol exhibited modern patterns of urban development as the citys medieval form was supplanted by processes associated with the segregation of class and economic activity, a functional change from a mercantile centre to one broadly based on manufacturing and services. The longitudinal implications of this change are examined using subsequent surveys for 1851 and 1871.

Retrieving the Past: A Reclamation and Reconstruction of the Social Survey of Bristol, 1937

This article describes the problems presented by the reclamation and reconstitution of historical survey data. The major aim of the article is to identify methodological and practical issues posed by the coding of historical data. It reiterates a critique of post-coding which has become the emergent historical standard. The Bristol Social Survey of 1937, which has survived only in a coded form, provides data and examples which demonstrate the perils and pitfalls inherent in pre-coded historical data.

Renewing Unilever: Transformation and Tradition Geoffrey Jones

No abstract available.