The Decline of British Shipbuilding: Negotiations Between the British Government and the Scott Lithgow Company 1960-1987

Abstract

The history of British industrial decline since 1945 has focused on whether the decline was relative or an absolute process. As a British industry, shipbuilding illustrates many contradictions inherent in both views; although overtaken by Japanese competition from the mid 1950’s, between 1945-1973 the output and productivity of British shipbuilding increased faster than at any point previously. This paper will discuss the role of the state in this process by using the negotiations between government and the Scott Lithgow shipyard in Scotland concerning the market for 250,000-ton crude oil carriers as an example, demonstrating that the agency of both management and government influenced the eventual outcome more than prevailing market conditions of the time.