Nearly two-thirds of the population of Wales and Monmouthshire (2·65 million) live in the two counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. In this area are the coal mines which, though long worked and operating at increasing depths, still produce nearly all Britain's anthracite and much of its steam and other specialised coals, and still employ more workers than any branch of manufacturing industry. Nevertheless, a large and increasing range of capital and consumer goods production has grown up. The steel industry, with some of the most modern plants in Europe, supplies almost all Britain's output of tin plate and a large proportion of its sheet steel. In the past 30 years a number of new industries have been established, including plastics, synthetic fibres, clothing, electronics and light engineering. Many of these new factories are on industrial estates.

The main cities are also the three major ports-Cardiff (261,000), Newport (109,000) and Swansea (170,000). Milford Haven, a magnificent deep-water harbour until recently little developed, has two major oil refineries and also oil and ore handling facilities.

In North Wales a number of light industries are located in the seaside resorts and other towns, particularly Wrexham (36,000).

Scotland

About three-quarters of Scotland's population (5.2 million) is concentrated in the central Lowlands, a belt some 65 miles wide and 15 to 30 miles deep between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. The principal cities in this area are Glasgow (1 million) and Edinburgh (477,000). Clydeside, which includes the city of Glasgow, is the United Kingdom's largest shipbuilding and marine engineering centre; it also has a great variety of general engineering enterprises and other industries. The steel industry, sited mainly in north Lanarkshire, produces a wide range of products. In Edinburgh there are now expanding electronic equipment industries in addition to the long established engineering, printing and brewing industries. The new towns of East Kilbride, Cumbernauld and Glenrothes have growing concentrations of modern industry, while an entirely new motor vehicle industry has recently been established in West Lothian and Renfrewshire. A fourth new town, Livingston, was designated in 1962.

Outside the central Lowland belt there is considerable industrial concentration in the vicinity of Dundee (185,000) and in Aberdeen (186,000), and a number of towns outside these areas have been attracting light industries in recent years. Dundee's traditional manufacture is jute, but office machinery, clocks and watches, refrigerators and washing machines are now also made there, while in north-east Scotland is the largest concentration of whisky distilleries.

Most of northern Scotland is mountainous and much of southern Scotland is hilly and rugged. These regions are sparsely populated, but the Scottish Highlands possess significant resources of hydro-electric power. There are high-quality tweed and knitwear industries in the Highlands and Islands and in the valley towns of the southern uplands of Scotland respectively.

Northern Ireland

Although the area is relatively small and lacking in minerals, there is substantial and growing industrialisation, particularly in and around the capital city of Belfast. The largest single shipyard in the United Kingdom is sited in Belfast, and in addition to other long-established activities, including the manufacture of marine

engines, ropes, twine, tobacco and clothing, Northern Ireland has long been an important centre for textiles (particularly linen). It is one of the most important areas in Europe for man-made fibre production and provides about one-fifth of Britain's production. There has also been extensive expansion in aircraft construction, and in the manufacture of oil-well equipment, electronic instruments, telephone switchgear equipment, toys, shoes, carpets and synthetic rubber.

THE STRUCTURE OF INDUSTRY

The pattern of ownership and organisation in industry is varied. Personal, corporate, co-operative and public enterprise all assume a number of different forms, and all are important in the economy. Industrial enterprises vary from the many small workshops to vast organisations such as the National Coal Board, a public corporation with about 600,000 employees; Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., limited liability company which, with its subsidiaries, employs over 100,000 persons in the United Kingdom; and the Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd., a co-operative society with about 54,000 employees.

Role of Public Enterprise

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the growth of the social services, especially health, education and housing, led to the progressively greater influence of the public sector of the economy. There was also an increase in the State's direct participation in productive and commercial activities, particularly in the decade 1940-50. State participation is effected mainly through special statutory bodies set up to deal with a particular activity. Such bodies, though not part of a Government department, are under a considerable but varying degree of public control. The most important of these statutory bodies are the public corporations which operate major industries and services in the public interest. Altogether over 9 per cent of the labour force works for these bodies, while another 14 per cent is almost equally divided between central and local government.

The public corporation today is, generally speaking, a public body having a clearly defined and specific task. Its managing board and its staff are chosen for their experience and competence in a particular field; they are not civil servants, and although they are accountable to Parliament for their actions in a variety of ways, it is they and not the Ministers of the sponsoring departments who are responsible for the management of the corporations. Certain of the corporations are self-supporting; others receive Exchequer grants to help them in carrying out the duties with which they have been charged.

Before the second world war, a number of public corporations were established1 1The principal corporations appointed before the second world war were: (1) the Central Electricity Board, established by the Electricity Supply Act, 1926, to rationalise electricity generation and build and operate a main transmission system; (2) the British Broadcasting Corporation, established in 1927 by Royal Charter to provide a national broadcasting service; (3) the Electricity Board for Northern Ireland, established by the Electricity (Supply) Act (Northern Ireland), 1931, to develop electricity supplies in Northern Ireland outside the two county boroughs, Belfast and Londonderry; (4) the London Passenger Transport Board, established by Act of Parliament in 1933, to operate the public transport system of the London metropolitan area; (5) the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board, established by the Road and Rail Transport Act (Northern Ireland), 1935, to acquire public road transport services in Northern Ireland outside the county boroughs; (6) the British Overseas Airways Corporation, established by the British Overseas Airways Act, 1939, to take over the operation of the two main existing air transport companiesImperial Airways and British Airways.

in those industries and services where it was considered that the national interest required co-ordination or control by a public authority. Their constitutions had no standard pattern and their governing bodies differed in the method of appointment and in composition.

Immediately after the second world war, the nationalisation Acts set up public corporations to run certain major industries and services, including coalmining, inland transport, gas supply, electricity generation and supply, and civil air transport. These post-war corporations are less varied in the structure of their governing bodies, which are appointed by the responsible Minister.

The following corporations, the organisation and functions of which are described in later chapters, are now operating or controlling large-scale industries or services: Atomic Energy: The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.

Aviation: The British Overseas Airways Corporation, British European Airways. Banking: The Bank of England.

Broadcasting: The British Broadcasting Corporation, the Independent Television Authority.

Coal: The National Coal Board.

Electric Power: The Electricity Council, the Central Electricity Generating Board, the Area Electricity Boards, the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, the South of Scotland Electricity Board, the Electricity Board for Northern Ireland.

Gas: The Gas Council, the Area Gas Boards.

Transport: The British Railways Board, the British Transport Docks Board, the British Waterways Board, the London Transport Board, the Transport Holding Company, the Ulster Transport Authority.

Mining and Quarrying

Much the most important of the British extractive industries is coalmining The coalmining industry of Great Britain is operated as a single co-ordinated enterprise under the direction of the National Coal Board.

Nearly all other mining and quarrying (iron ore, sand, gravel, chalk, limestone, salt, tin, slate, oil shale and china clay) is undertaken by private enterprises, usually owned and operated by limited liability companies. About 67,000 workers are employed in mining and quarrying, excluding coalmining.

Manufacturing

Most manufacturing is in the hands of private enterprise. Exceptions include fissile materials and radioactive isotopes made by the Atomic Energy Authority, locomotives and rolling-stock built for the Railways Board in its own workshops, a considerable quantity of arms and military equipment made in Royal Ordnance factories and other factories operated by the War Office and the Ministry of Aviation, and some fighting ships built in naval dockyards operated by the Royal Navy. The staff of the Stationery Office do some printing and bookbinding, while the repair, and to a limited extent the construction, of post office equipment is carried on in factories run by the Post Office. Certain factories giving employment to the severely disabled are operated by Remploy Ltd., a non-profit-making

public company financed on the Vote of the Ministry of Labour, which appoints the directors. The equity of one large iron and steel company, Richard Thomas and Baldwins, is still held by a Government agency, the Iron and Steel Holding and Realisation Agency. The Government also holds 51 per cent of the equity of one major oil company and has a controlling interest in a few other companies. Surveys of the size of all manufacturing establishments employing more than 10 persons are made periodically by the Ministry of Labour; the results of the most recent of these surveys, based on returns rendered by employers in June 1961, show that nearly a third of all employees in such establishments are in those employing from 100 to 499 persons, while slightly over a third are in establishments employing 1,000 or more persons. A high proportion of the biggest establishments are in the heavy industries, while the average size of establishments in industries making consumer goods is smaller than in manufacturing industries as a whole. Comparisons with results obtained in earlier surveys on similar lines suggest that there is a slow but significant trend towards an increase in the average size of manufacturing establishments: in 1961, establishments with 1,000 or more employees were found to employ 2,821,000 persons, over 25 per cent more than in 1953 and more than 24 times as many as in 1935. In addition, there are a very large number of manufacturing establishments with fewer than 11 employees and in these a total of about 750,000 workers are estimated to be employed.

The size of establishments is not in itself an indication of the size of manufacturing enterprises, as a single enterprise may own several establishments, not all of them necessarily engaged in the same or similar activities. The most recent analysis of manufacturing enterprises by size (employment) is provided by the Report of the Census of Production for 1958. An enterprise, as defined in the Census, normally consists of either a single firm or a holding company together with its subsidiaries. Just over half of all employment in British manufacturing industries in 1958 was accounted for by about 950 large private enterprises employing 1,000 or more people, the largest 70 or so accounting roughly for a quarter. A further indication of the size of companies is the value of net assets. Those of the largest, Imperial Chemical Industries, total nearly £900 million, while there are about twenty companies registered in Britain with assets of over £100 million.

In some industries a small number of big companies and their subsidiaries are responsible for most of the total production. Examples are oil refining, steel making, the manufacture of motor vehicles and components, aircraft and aeroengines, heavy electrical equipment, bicycles, tobacco, cement, and basic chemicals. Shares in these companies are usually distributed among a great number of holders and it is rare for a few large holders to have a controlling interest. For example, five of the largest public companies each have more than 100,000 shareholders. In recent years there has been a relatively large number of mergers, creating larger units of control; and in some industries, notably brewing, pharmaceuticals, aircraft, electrical products and newspaper and magazine publishing, there have been increases in concentration. There has also been a growth of large industrial holding companies, controlling a wide range of subsidiary companies with a diversity of industrial interests.

The way in which the work of production is divided within and between different firms varies from industry to industry and is determined by the most economic methods of production and distribution. In the cotton industry, for example, it is usual for different firms to undertake the various main processes of production (spinning, weaving, finishing), while in the woollen section of the wool textile industry all these processes are commonly undertaken within the same firm. Some of the leading establishments in the vehicles group of industries are primarily engaged on the assembly of parts, many of which have been manufactured for them under contract by specialist firms.

In building and civil engineering, large-scale work is usually carried out by private contractors, although the Ministry of Public Building and Works is the largest single employer of building labour while nearly 45 per cent of the industry's output is for public authorities.

Building firms may be divided into those undertaking general building and civil engineering work and those concerned with highly specialised work, many of which operate outside as well as inside the building industry. Building is an industry of small firms; more than three-quarters of the firms employ fewer than 20 employees.

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION

From the middle of the nineteenth century, private industrial undertakings have increasingly entered into voluntary association for a number of different purposes. Some of the more important of these purposes may be classified as follows:

1. The provision of common services, the exchange of information, liaison with the Government, and representation of their members' point of view. 2. The regulation of trading practices, sometimes including the regulation of prices (see p. 19).

3. Negotiation with trade unions on wages and conditions of work.

Associations for the first and third of these purposes cover, with varying completeness, most of British industry, but there are wide sectors of industry where there are no collective agreements to regulate trading practices. Associations which deal with labour matters usually consist of firms engaged in the same type of operation or manufacturing process. Organisations mainly concerned with representations to the Government, provision of common services or the regulation of trading practices are built up round a product or an allied group of products. In an industrial sector concerned wholly with an allied group of products, a single association may undertake all the required functions.

There are about 80 national federations and probably altogether about 1,500 employers' organisations (mostly regional or local, and members or branches of the national federations) all concerned with negotiation of wages and conditions of work. Most of the national federations are in turn affiliated to the British Employers' Confederation, the national body representing employers on labour questions affecting industry generally.

The number of manufacturers' associations concerned with providing common services is not known precisely, but according to a survey carried out by Political and Economic Planning (an independent research organisation) between 1953 and 1956, some 1,300 were in existence, varying greatly in importance, structure and activities. Membership of the Federation of British Industries (FBI), the national body recognised as a principal spokesman for British industry on economic, commercial and production (as distinct from labour) matters, consists of some 8,500 individual firms and about 280 national trade organisations, with a total affiliated membership of over 40,000 firms. The FBI has offices in the main industrial centres in the United Kingdom, and is widely represented abroad. A number of the organisations affiliated to the FBI also deal with labour matters and are affiliated to the British Employers' Confederation. The two organisations work closely together on matters of common interest.

Other important national associations of employers are the National Association of British Manufacturers (NABM) and the Association of British Chambers of