ABSTRACT
the flat-glass industry has an interesting history in which mergers have played only a small part. The reasons for this are closely linked with the peculiar circumstances of the industry and its rapidly changing techniques; for these reasons interesting comparisons may be made between this and other industries in which mergers have played a more prominent part. In all these studies of mergers in particular industries, we are concerned with the effects of mergers and with the question as to why there were mergers rather than other developments; by looking at an industry in which mergers were of relatively little importance some light is thrown upon the circumstances in which the concentration of industry takes place by means other than mergers. In this industry, as in others, there are tremendous economies of scale and it appears that in the main processes, particularly in the production of plate glass, one can think in terms of inevitable elimination of competition and concentration of production. In sheet glass the concentration of production was less inevitable than the restriction of competition and in rolled plate glass neither was quite inevitable, although free oligopolistic competition is improbable.
