ABSTRACT
with the breakdown in 1906 of the plans for a combine Lever abandoned the idea of combining in one operation the larger firms in the industry, or even a substantial proportion of them. But he did not give up his idea of uniting them. During the next fifteen years Lever Brothers bought up firms one by one until, in 1921, they controlled something between half and three-fifths of the soap consumed in the United Kingdom. Since, with their associated firms, they dominated the export trade, they controlled a larger share than this of the amount produced in the country, probably about seven-tenths. None the less, a large number of small soap makers still existed outside the combine. The Soap Makers’ Directory listed for 1920 about 270 soap firms in Great Britain; at that date Lever’s owned fully thirty-three soap firms besides themselves in Great Britain, and had a 50 percent interest in nine others, all but two in Scotland.
