ABSTRACT
It has been shown that the manufacturing and commercial sector in the UK has proportionately more large enterprises and proportionately fewer small enterprises than the equivalent sectors in the other major European industrial nations. 1 Britain finds itself in this position at a time when the older industrial nations are being challenged by the newer industrial nations of the Far East and South America. Certain industries, to be successful, need large enterprises to obtain the benefits from large-scale production, but it is precisely these industries that the newer industrial nations are developing. These newer industrial nations can combine the advantages of size with relatively low wage costs. Unfortunately, for many years smaller businesses were not encouraged in Britain – in fact they were discouraged – and so we find ourselves with an industrial structure which has many large units which are inflexible, and few new enterprises. We have been reluctant to allow the older industries to contract when faced with severe competition, because they usually consist of a few large corporations that are large employers of labour. We do not have enough small companies growing up to develop new ideas and new markets. It is only when we have a healthy small business sector that we will be able to handle the structural employment problem.
