Hello, taloola69-ga!
You have asked about an interesting time in history. Unfortunately,
there is not an abundance of online information relating specifically
to Scotland's industrial decline during the WWI Era. I have devoted
several hours to searching and have not found little more than what I
have provided below.
I have also found a book that goes into more depth about Scotland's
industrial history. You should find some excellent information if you
decide to order it.
DECLINE OF HEAVY INDUSTRY
=========================
"During the 1900's heavy industry began to decline in Scotland. The
factors which caused this were:
* Local iron ore supplies were exhausted (used up)
* Coal mining declined as reserves were used up or considered too expensive to mine
* Competition from other countries that produced cheap coal, iron and
steel and ships
* Unhelpful location e.g. Ravenscraig, the last big steelworks, was
inland and therefore had extra costs in transporting the iron ore and
coal by rail
* Shipbuilding yards were built on water that was too shallow to
launch modern, very large ships
From "Industrial Decline." http://www.scalloway.org.uk/indu4.htm
==
"As the 19th century wore on, Lowland Scotland turned more and more
towards heavy industry. Glasgow and the mouth of the River Clyde
became a major ship-building centre, to the point that Glasgow was
briefly one of the largest cities in the world and the second largest
city in the British Empire after London."
"Tied as it was to the health of the British Empire, Scotland suffered
after the First World War as it had gained beforehand. In the
Highlands, which, for cultural reasons, had provided a
disproportionate number of recruits for the British army, a whole
generation of young men were lost, and many villages and communities
suffered greatly. In the Lowlands, particularly Glasgow, the terrible
working and living conditions for the industrial workers, many of whom
did not agree with the motives of the war, led to industrial and
political unrest. John MacLean became a key political figure in Red
Clydeside and on Bloody Friday January 31st 1919, the British
Government was so fearful of a revolutionary uprising in Glasgow that
tanks and soldiers were stationed in George Square. During the 1920s
and 1930s, as ship-building and other industrial pursuits came to be
more profitable outwith the British Isles, Glasgow and Clydebank
slowly decayed and fell into economic depression."
Excerpt from "History of Scotland." Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Scotland
Iron and steel
==============
Historical Overview and Consequent Decline:
"Scotland's abundance of coal and iron ore made it a natural home to
heavy industry - and iron and steel formed the backbone of Scotland's
economy for centuries."
"Modern iron production began in 1759, when the Carron Company, in
Falkirk, came up with a revolutionary method to smelt coke. With the
help of Thomas Edington, who helped promote iron-smelting ventures,
the industry grew mainly in the west coast."
"The introduction of hot-blast iron, the reduction in fuel costs and
the rise in demand for railway iron during the 18th century led to
massive expansion - 1,200,000 tons of iron were produced in 1870.
Foreign exports were also growing, from 119,000 tons in 1843 to
617,000 tons in 1872."
"The first attempt at large scale production of steel came in the
early 1870s with establishment of the Steel Company of Scotland. The
innovations of Henry Bessemer, who invented the Bessemer converter,
and Sir William Siemens, who invented the Siemens-Martin open-hearth
furnace, helped the industry feed the thriving Scottish shipbuilding
industry - and enjoy massive profits from producing 240,000 tons of
open-hearth steel a year by 1885. The rise in demand for steel from
the shipbuilding and railway industries meant iron output declined
during the early decades of the 20th century."
World War 1
-----------
"In the boom years before and after the First World War, Scottish
steelmakers were able to charge higher prices than their English
counterparts, but by 1921 cheaper foreign competition, the exhaustion
of Scotland's raw materials, and cheap coal from Cleveland saw our
steel industry beginning to decline. The decline of shipbuilding on
the Clyde accelerated the drop in steel production, from a peak of
2,074,000 tons in 1920 to 1,643,000 tons by 1936.
Read more about the continuing decline over the years:
From "Iron and Steel." by Naomi Wright. Heritage Scotsman
http://heritage.scotsman.com/cfm/heritagegallery/level2.cfm?navlevel3=Industrial&navlevel4=Iron%20and%20Steel
Shipbuilding
==============
Some excerpts from "Clydeside: When the Workshop of the World Shut Up
Shop." BBCI. http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/scotland/strathclyde/index.shtml
"By the end of the 19th century, Glasgow could lay claim to one of the
largest accumulations of industrial capital held by any city in the
world. Its success in heavy industry, particularly shipbuilding and
its attendant industries such as steel production, inspired the
self-proclaimed title of The Second City of the Empire. A century of
rapid industrialisation had seen the city grow from 84,000 people in
year 1800, when most of the population were employed in the textile
industry, to 762,000 in 1901, when Clyde-centred heavy industry
dominated."
...
"By the time the recession had fully set into 1920s society, the
pre-war period was looked on with nostalgia. But it was Glasgow?s
great, Victorian, industrial success and Clydeside?s specialism in
heavy industries that contained the very seeds of the depression that
would take hold of the region and never really leave again except when
the war-machine required extra services."
"The Scottish economy was over reliant on these industries; and areas
in the South of England, which had diversified enough to bolster
employment in the service sector and through catering for the needs a
gradually awakening consumer society, recovered from the recession
more readily than industry-dependent areas in the north of Britain.
Glasgow and its surrounding area were looking at long-term
unemployment, and this in itself stunted the growth of consumer
society and produced a self-sustaining cycle of poverty."
"But why did Clydeside fail so spectacularly in rediscovering its
industrial glories after the war? Certainly many employers expected
continued success, if not only to replace the shipping that was lost
during the war. Full employment during the war was followed by the
short post-war boom of 1919-1920, and even when the economy slumped in
1920-21, many employers tried to keep the backbone of their labour
force in the hope that trade would resume as normal. However,
competitors from the USA, Japan, Scandinavia and Holland had similar
ideas, and for Clydeside the trade did not return."
"To compound the problems, Clydeside took the brunt of the
macro-economic decisions taken by successive governments to fight the
Depression of the 1920s and 30s. In order to attract investment,
primarily from rich American bankers, and stabilise Sterling, it was
deemed necessary to rationalise British industry. This happened
initially through wage cuts and downsizing of industrial capacity, and
most of the Clyde?s industrialists supported the Bank of England?s
decision to force cuts in order to deal with inflation."
"By the early 1930s, Sir James Lithgow, with the backing of the Bank,
bought up and then closed a third of British shipbuilding in order to
rationalise the industry. The Clyde was not the only victim; Yarrow on
Tyneside, for example, lost both its yards and the virtually whole
town lost their jobs."
Read more....
===
"The epoch of chemicals, electricity, radio, powered flight - and of
the joint-stock company and shareholder value - was unfavourable to
the patronage and partnership ethos of Scots industrialisation. But in
the crisis which ended the imperial age, in 1914-18, the Clyde, as
"workshop of the world", still outproduced Germany and so saved
Britain."
"However, centralised control over-concentrated Scotland on old
specialisms or on new equipment unsaleable in peacetime. Machinery and
labour were still there, but the First World War broke up the linkages
that riveted McAndrew?s world together."
From "Stories from the Scotsman: Taking industry to the world." (Sept 13, 2001)
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotsman/world_industry.htm
A bit of a look at what life was like during the Workshop years
===============================================================
"By the time the Queen died in 1901, Scotland was the workshop of the
world. A huge industrial complex now spread over the whole west of
Scotland, its tentacles reaching down into deepest Ayrshire and
Lanarkshire, across the central belt towards Edinburgh and into Fife,
while outlying areas such as Dundee equally shared in the long-term
boom."
"Observers noted how the various branches of Scottish industry
reinforced one another, and this contributed to the nation?s marked,
perhaps overweening, self-confidence. Any time one branch faltered
another could take up the slack. Population had doubled to more than
four million, despite heavy emigration and the emptying of the
Highlands. There was work and money for everyone and more, as attested
by immigration just as heavy, chiefly from Ireland."
"It stands to reason that amid such a total transformation there
should have been painful strains. None of those other nations which
have followed the British in the industrial revolution have been able
to avoid them, so there was no chance for the pioneers in the
process."
"The pain and strain struck every visitor to the Scottish cities. They
found a reality, if anything, more horrible than they expected from
reading Dickens? novels. Scotland had some of the worst housing in
Europe, huge families crammed into tiny flats, maybe of just one room,
off crumbling stairs down dark and filthy closes. There was a
pollution, industrial and human. There was malnutrition and disease,
even plague from time to time, but more often the sicknesses of
squalor, typhus or cholera or tuberculosis."
"There was domestic drudgery for the women and long hours of
ferociously disciplined labour for the men . Children had been banned
from full-time employment early on in Victoria?s reign, but still they
died like flies. Pleasures, from whores to whisky, could only be in
like degree sordid and brief."
Read more...
From "The best of times, the worst of times." Heritage.Scotsman.com
http://heritage.scotsman.com/cfm/heritagenews/headlines_specific.cfm?articleid=vicky&subset=archive
Book
======
You might want to get your hands on the following book:
"Industrial Nation: Work, Culture and Society in Scotland, 1800-Present
William W. Knox. Available from http://www.amazon.co.uk
"This is a social and cultural history of Scotland's industrial rise
and relative decline, concerned above all with the leaders and workers
(industrial, political, manufacturing, mining and engineering, as well
as religious, union, educational and moral) who produced the former
and suffered in the latter. Political, social and economic events,
movements and trends are mixed together in this work. The author
assumes no previous experience."
==
I am sorry there was not more information available online. I
sincerely hope the references I have provided serve to provide you
with an initial overview of the period surrounding World War I and the
effect on Scotland's industry. If you desire to pursue the subject
further, the book I mentioned should be quite interesting.
Please do not hesitate to ask for clarification if necessary. I will
try to help if I can!
Regards,
umiat
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