ABSTRACT
the first Soap Makers’ Directory, 247 published in 1888 (three years after William Lever began manufacturing), listed close on 345 manufacturers of soap in Great Britain, of whom seventy-four were in London, rather over 211 in the rest of England and Wales, and sixty in Scotland. Apparently, no firm before Lever had tried to build up a national market. Generally speaking, these firms produced bar soap for local markets. To safeguard these markets the firms operated a series of conventions, rather loose in their nature, reserving sales in broad zones for the local makers; there were also some private agreements between individual firms to the same end. ‘Preserves were respected and poaching was kept to a minimum.’ 248 From 1867, also, there existed the Soap Makers’ Association, a body whose scope was never easy to define; it was not supposed to fix prices, though it did permit the trade to agree when to alter them, agreements which were rarely, if ever, firmly adhered to. 249 No record exists before 1888 of the changes in the number of firms making soap; but it is probable that in this earlier period, as in later ones, new firms came in and old ones went out; there has never been any effective check on new entry.
