ABSTRACT
The manufacture of cars and their components developed slowly in the 1890s but accelerated quickly after the turn of the century, generating large-scale investment and new job opportunities and elevating Coventry to a position of national economic importance. On the eve of the First World War Coventry firms accounted for about one-third of total motor vehicle output in Britain and included many of the industry's most prestigious names. Coventry was also special for the contribution of its cycle firms to the evolution of motor vehicle manufacture. The decline of the traditional crafts of silk weaving and watchmaking helps to explain Coventry's prominence as the focus of the early cycle-making industry. The period before the First World War was one of remarkable change in the Coventry Motor industry, a time of exceptional prosperity for some, but of lost opportunities for others.
