The History of the Distillers Company, 1887-1939

Diversification and Growth in Whisky and Chemicals

R. B. Weir

A Clarendon Press Publication

The History of the Distillers Company, 1887-1939

Diversification and Growth in Whisky and Chemicals

R. B. Weir

A Clarendon Press Publication

Description

A thoroughly researched and definitive history of a major company in a major industry by the expert in the field. The author has penetrated the "tartan curtain" to uncover a great deal of new material on the Scotch whisky industry, such as DCL's organization of bootlegging during American prohibition. But as well as chronicling DCL's potable activities and the development of its chemical activities, he relates his findings to a wide range of issues of current interest in business history, such as diversification, acquisition, and size.

The History of the Distillers Company, 1887-1939

Diversification and Growth in Whisky and Chemicals

R. B. Weir

A Clarendon Press Publication

List of Plates
List of Figures
List of Tables
Abbreviations
The Process of Distilling: A Basic Outline
Part One: The Torphichen Street Leviathan
1. Continuous Distillation and the Coffey Still
2. Problems of Ascendancy: Trade Associations and the Formation of the Distillers Company, 1856-1877
3. The Distillers Company and the Process of Amalgamation, 1877-1881
4. The 'Whisky Parliament': The United Kingdom Distillers' Association, 1878-1888
5. The Development of the Distillers Company, 1878-1895
6. The Capitalist and the Chemist: Yeast-making and Marketing, 1881-1914
7. 'The Most Discreditable Chapter in the History of the Whisky Trade': Pattisons Ltd.
8. The Torphichen Street Leviathan
9. Moderation and Modernity: The Distillers Company, 1914-1918
Part Two: The Distillers Company and The Big Three
10. DCL and The Big Three: 'A Scheme for Amalgamation', 1909-1915
11. 'The Beginning of Bigger Things' 1915-1918
12. 'The Altered Circumstances of the Trade', 1919-1924
13. The Making of an Amalgamation
14. The Management of the Distillers Company: How Palsied was 'the Visible Hand'?
15. 'Capone was a poacher': Marketing in Hard Times, 1919-1939
Part Three: From the 'Whisky Age' to the 'Alcohol Age': The Diversification of the Distillers Company, 1900-1939
Introduction
16. Power Alcohol
17. The Great Dictator? DCL and Industrial Alcohol, 1918-1945
18. Chemicals 1: Findind a Route to Solvents
19. Chemicals 2: Encirclement - Union Carbide to the Rescue?
20. Risk versus Reward: DCL's Diversification Strategy, 1900-1939
Appendix: Principal Persons Mentioned in the Text
Bibliography
Index