ABSTRACT
During the 1880s, home defence was linked to imperial defence, an idea which brought the navy back to the centre of British political life. The return of naval strategy changed the relationship between the British government and Elswick in two areas. First, a rational division of labour was developed between the private and public arsenals and dockyards, along with greater collaboration on technical questions. The second area of cooperation between the government and Elswick was between the managers of the company and the managers of the British state at the highest levels. If the former can be referred to as a 'naval-industrial complex', the latter might appropriately be called a 'political-industrial complex'. The merging of Elswick with the government in the 1880-1914 period was part of much larger historical developments of the time. Imperialism and navies fed upon each other and contributed to the context for the transformation of Elswick into a giant industrial enterprise.
