ABSTRACT
Industrial reorganization became a major issue in Britain during the 1920s with the spread of large firms, inter-firm co-operation and new approaches to management organization. This in turn reflected shifts in technologies, market conditions and the legal framework for business. Most businessmen recognized the limitations of rationalization. Rationalization was only uncontroversial so long as it remained a private-sector prerogative. The lack of progress on rationalization, particularly in the staple trades, inevitably led to criticisms of the means being employed. More importantly, international economic conditions were changing. Enthusiasm for rationalization was bound up with the notion that British prosperity required an export revival on nineteenth-century lines. It was recognized that changes to industrial organization could also deliver higher profits. Schemes to raise prices were much easier to conceive than schemes to lower costs. But the National Government feared that if interference with market forces went too far this might do more harm than good, both politically and economically.
