ABSTRACT
Leslie Hannah has developed the notion of ‘technological nationalism’ and shown that politicians often exerted pressure on nationalized industries to buy British. The nationalized enterprises established by the Attlee Government usually had a monopoly of the industry in which they operated. Although the performance of the nationalized industries varied, long-run productivity growth of the nationalized sector as a whole was superior to the average for British manufacturing. During the 1950s, gas industry managers concentrated on achieving these economies of scale. The gas industry responded to the challenge of high costs and declining markets by looking for alternative sources of supply, and by a search for cheaper processes to replace the expensive carbonization of coal. The Ministry of Fuel and Power was responsible for ensuring the efficiency of the fuel industries, and for the coordination of fuel policy. Politicians accepted that the industry needed to move away from coal and towards other sources of supply.
