ABSTRACT
‘State of the art’ was a label invariably applied to foreign direct investment projects. Indeed it was commonly attributed to a range of businesses and products in the Victorian period to excite interest and build consumer confidence as a promotional, rather than a necessarily accurate, description. 2 This chapter will examine the genuinely groundbreaking facets of the Marki plant in comparison with both contemporary British and Russian-Polish standards. It will show how an image of technological progressiveness, in place of real product innovation, could be used to great advantage to market new firms abroad. In a period when scientific developments were aimed at greater economy and reduced skill requirements in manufacturing, this chapter will explore their particular instrumentality in facilitating British foreign direct investment. As headline reports focused on the unprecedented plant sizes, giant engines, huge employee numbers, larger and faster machines of industrial enterprises abroad, this chapter will separate the fact from the fiction to reveal some fundamental pillars of the Briggs-Posselt partnership’s strategy in Russian Poland.
