The State and the Emergence of the British Oil Industry

Notes:

Scholarly account of the international oil industry at a time when it had hardly been studied academically [outside the USA]. Deals with the birth and development of the British industry in the first 25 years of the 20th century covering in particular the growth and marketing strategies of the companies which developed from relatively small entities into powerful international concerns; the political relationship between the state and oil companies and the international diplomacy by the state to acquire an independent oil supply leading to its control, via the Admiralty, of Anglo Persian Oil Co Ltd; the oil companies' need of state diplomacy, oil contracts, finance, etc. Has sections: 1] 'Admiral and the oilmen'; 2] 'Marketing of oil in Britain' - structure of the market, new products, market for fuel oil, state as a market; 3] 'British in foreign oilfields' - British oil industry, oilfields of Russia, Weetman Pearson and Mexico oil, growth of Shell Group 1907-14; 4] 'Oil and empire' - Indian empire, West Indies, Egypt; 5] 'Persian Oil' - D'Arcy Concession, intervention of Burmah Oil 1904-5, search for oil 1915-8, birth of Anglo Persian Oil Co Ltd, APOC and the British government; 6] 'The making of an 'exceptional relationship'' - re APOC; 7] 'Politics of oil, 1914-18' - oil and the First World War, 'return of the Shell menace', search for a national oil company 1912-14; 8] 'The road to Ashnacarry' - 1920-24 merger scheme, cartels and combines, etc