ABSTRACT
the British motor industry, like the motor industry in the other major producing countries, is highly concentrated. Mergers have played a minor role in bringing about this concentration. This may well be true of any mass-production industry that enjoys more-or-less continuous expansion, and which makes a durable product subject to constant development and improvement. Out of this historical survey as far as Britain is concerned, very few of the two dozen or so horizontal combinations that have taken place emerge as being memorable events, exerting a significant influence on the development of the present structure of the industry. Certainly the formation of the British Motor Corporation was an event of major importance—but beyond that? Only the Morris-Wolseley merger and, perhaps, one or two others stand out at this date as having any real significance. If one lumped together all the acquisitions of the Rootes Group one would be entitled to say that they provided the foundation for one of the major producers. But no more than that; for it was clearly the internal expansion of these purchases which gave the Rootes Group its position as one of the ‘Big Five’. In some respects (if one ignores scale) this resembles the experience of General Motors.
