The Past Speaks

Over the next couple of days, I’ll be presenting at/attending the Association of Business Historians Conference in Preston, Lancashire. The conference has parallel sessions, which has forced me to make some hard choices about which papers to go and hear. Here are my choices:
Friday, 28 June

Session I-B: History of Banks and Banking in the 20th Century (GR 202)
Chair: Billy Frank, University of Central Lancashire

Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, University of Bangor: “Cash and Dash: ATMs and the construction of today’s retail payments ecosystem”

Qing Lu, University of Hull: “Subsidiary Competitive Advantages, Parent Company
Management Structure and Post-acquisition Integration of HSBC with Mercantile Bank,
1959-1984”

Scott Taylor and Alan McKinlay, “Strategy, Technology and Gender: Making and Unmaking the Marriage Bar in British Banking, c. 1900-1970”

Session II-B: Decision-Making in British Transportation (GR Lecture Theatre)

Chair: Terry Gourvish, London School of Economics

Roy Edwards, University of Southampton: “The Ministry of Transport and the British
Railways: Conceptualising the Business Model for Freight Transport c1919 – 1947”

Kevin Tennent and David Turner, University of York: “Management and Competitive
Advantage in the public transport industry – London County Council Tramways 1899-
1933”

David Turner, University of York: “Decision-making in the private railway industry – the
quality of management on the London and South Western Railway 1870-1911”

Session III-A: The Company as the Unit of Analysis in Business History: Cadburys (GR
359)

Chair: John Quail, University of York

Emma Robertson, LaTrobe University: “‘The sun never sets on the Cadbury and Fry
flags…’: Manufacturing work, place and gender in empire subsidiaries, 1920-1960”

Vaughn White, University of York: “The Introduction and Development of Costing within
the UK Confectionery Industry: The Experience of Cadbury 1899-1914”

18:00 – 19:00 Drinks Reception, Greenbank Foyer (supported by Taylor & Francis
Publishing)

19:00 – 20:00 Break
20:00 – 22:00 Conference dinner (Tino’s Restaurant)

Saturday, 29 JUNE

Session IV-B: Mass Media (GR 350)

Chair: Mitch Larson, University of Central Lancashire

Candan Celik-Elmer and Mitch Larson, University of Central Lancashire: “Changing Values in American Magazine Advertisements, 1965-2005”

Howard Cox, Worcester College Oxford, and Simon Mowatt, Auckland University of
Technology: “Machinations in Fleet Street: Roy Thomson, Cecil King, and the creation of
a magazine monopoly”

Peter Miskell, University of Reading, and Marina Nicoli, Bocconi University: “For a Few
Dollars More: Film Distribution in Italy, 1958-1971”

Session V-A: British Business Overseas in the 20th Century (GR 347)

Chair: Rory Miller, University of Liverpool

Philip Garnett, University of Durham, Simon Mollan, University of Liverpool, and Kevin

Tennent, University of York: “The Transitory Period in British International Business,
1950-1980: Evidence from the British Overseas Mining Sector”

Andrew Smith, Coventry University: “Delayering the Workforce: HSBC in the 1960s”

Rory Miller, University of Liverpool: “British Merchants on the West Coast of South
America in the Inter-War Period: Growth, Survival and Failure”

Session VI-B: 20th Century British Business History (GR 350)

Chair: Simon Mollan, University of Liverpool

Mark Billings and Lynne Oats, University of Exeter: “Designing a business tax: Excess
Profits Duty in the United Kingdom in World War One”

Julie Bower, University of Birmingham, and Howard Cox, Worcester College Oxford:
“Whitbread, the Whitbread Investment Company and protection from hostile bids”

Stephen Sambrook and Ray Stokes, University of Glasgow: “Bringing rubbish into business
history”

Session VII-B: British Empire and Business (GR 347)

Chair: Stephen Sambrook, University of Glasgow

Billy Frank, University of Central Lancashire: “‘Banking on Empire’: Decisions and
Decision Makers in Britain’s Post-War Colonial Development Planning, 1939–1954”

Timo Särkkä, University of Jyväskylä: “The British paper trade and market regulation: from free trade Empire to the Common Market, 1861–1960”

Vikram Visana, University of Cambridge: “Banks, Bonds, and Business: The Economic
Thought of Dadabhai Naoroji”
Shakila Yacob, University of Malaya, and Nick White, Liverpool John Moores University:
“Malaysianisation and the British family-run business: the case of the Barlow Group in
the 1970s and 1980s”

Due to a timetable clash, I won’t be able to listen to the following presentation, despite its intriguing title:

John Quail, University of York: “Why did US Corporations have Presidents while UK
Corporations did not – and does it matter?”