ABSTRACT
Coventry's pre-1914 dynamism was given a further boost by the demands of the war economy of 1914-18. The motor firms, machine-tool producers and metal and engineering companies already established in the area converted much of their production to meet the expanding needs of the military front, while the Ordnance works predictably boomed, and the demand for artificial silk meant that production at Courtaulds soared. Two new industries also appeared during the war
1 All population figures used here are taken from the census, apart from the 1938 figure, which is an estimate contained in Fogarty, M.P., Prospects o/the Industrial Areas o/Great Britain, (London, 1945), p. 28. 2 Quoted in Thoms, D.W. and Donnelly, T., 'Coventry's industrial economy, 1880-1980', in Lancaster, B. and Mason, T., (eds), Life and Labour in a Twentieth Century City; The Experience o/Coventry, (Coventry, 1986), p. 12. 3 Lloyd-Jones, R. and Lewis, M.J., 'Business networks, social habits and the evolution of a regional industrial cluster: Coventry 1880s-1930s', in Wilson, J.F. and Popp, A., (eds), Industrial Clusters and Regional Business Networks in England, 1750-1970, (Aldershot, 2003), p. 233; Thoms and Donnelly, 'Coventry's industrial economy', p. 13. 4 Lancaster, B., 'Who's a real Coventry kid?: migration into twentieth century Coventry', in Lancaster and Mason, Life and Labour, p. 61.
