From Competition to Collaboration: The Warshipbuilders’ Committee and the National Shipbuilders’ Security Scheme, 1926–1931

Abstract

This chapter explores the responses to lack of orders that the warshipbuilders and other naval arms manufacturers undertook after 1926 and the collapse of the Coventry Ordnance Works. These ranged from the predictable (diversification) to the illegal (cartels and price fixing). The role the Admiralty, particularly Chatfield, played in allowing this cartel to operate is also examined.