ABSTRACT
The economic structure of the new state was dominated by industries which would experience severe problems in the inter-war decades - shipbuilding, linen and agriculture which together employed between 40 and 50 per cent of the working population. The Harland and Wolff shipbuilding complex had come to symbolize the modernity and strength of the north's economy and employed more than 30,000 people in 1920. It very soon faced major difficulties in a world market where there was over-capacity. With the rest of the British shipbuilding industry, it was subject to increased competition from countries like the United States and Scandinavia which had fostered their industries with subsidies during the war. Despite this, Northern Irish shipbuilding performed reasonably well until 1930. In 1929 both the largest tonnage in the world and the largest single ship, the Britannic, were launched in Belfast. The industry was hard hit by the world slump after 1929. By 1932-33 employment fell to only a tenth of the 1929-30 level and in 1935 the smaller of the two yards, Workman Clark, closed. Although shipbuilding recovered from the depths of the depression, its progress in Belfast was less than in other British yards largely because its past specialization in large liners and merchant vessels meant it received few Admiralty contracts.
