Peter N. Davies
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780968128893
- eISBN:
- 9781786944757
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780968128893.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
This chapter explores the lives of Alexander Elder and John Dempster, two men whose work, power and influence changed the whole of Britain’s shipping and commercial relationship with West Africa. It ...
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This chapter explores the lives of Alexander Elder and John Dempster, two men whose work, power and influence changed the whole of Britain’s shipping and commercial relationship with West Africa. It discusses the pair’s impact on the British West African shipping trade in general and on Elder Dempster and Company in particular. The chapter details the rivalry between the African Steam Ship Company and the British and African Steam Navigation Company and presents the eventual negotiation and agreements made between the two. It concludes with the abrupt ending of the agency of the African Steam Ship Company.Less
This chapter explores the lives of Alexander Elder and John Dempster, two men whose work, power and influence changed the whole of Britain’s shipping and commercial relationship with West Africa. It discusses the pair’s impact on the British West African shipping trade in general and on Elder Dempster and Company in particular. The chapter details the rivalry between the African Steam Ship Company and the British and African Steam Navigation Company and presents the eventual negotiation and agreements made between the two. It concludes with the abrupt ending of the agency of the African Steam Ship Company.
Peter N. Davies
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780968128893
- eISBN:
- 9781786944757
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780968128893.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
This chapter follows the professional career of Alfred Lewis Jones to his position as senior partner of Elder Dempster and Company. It details Jones’ early career history, including the establishment ...
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This chapter follows the professional career of Alfred Lewis Jones to his position as senior partner of Elder Dempster and Company. It details Jones’ early career history, including the establishment of his firm, Alfred L. Jones and Company, and his junior partnership with Elder Dempster and Company. The chapter concludes with Jones’ decision to create a conference system to regulate the West African shipping trade, as a result of constant negotiations with rival opponents Woermann Line of Hamburg and the Royal Niger Company.Less
This chapter follows the professional career of Alfred Lewis Jones to his position as senior partner of Elder Dempster and Company. It details Jones’ early career history, including the establishment of his firm, Alfred L. Jones and Company, and his junior partnership with Elder Dempster and Company. The chapter concludes with Jones’ decision to create a conference system to regulate the West African shipping trade, as a result of constant negotiations with rival opponents Woermann Line of Hamburg and the Royal Niger Company.
Peter N. Davies
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780968128893
- eISBN:
- 9781786944757
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780968128893.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
This chapter discusses Macgregor Laird’s involvement in the formation of the African Steam Ship Company and his role as its first managing director. It also discusses Laird’s personal and ...
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This chapter discusses Macgregor Laird’s involvement in the formation of the African Steam Ship Company and his role as its first managing director. It also discusses Laird’s personal and professional life as an early pioneer of West African Trade and shareholder in the African Inland Commercial Company. The chapter largely focuses on the usefulness of the River Niger as a ‘highway’ into Central Africa and accounts Laird’s own expedition up the river from October 1832 to August 1833, taken in order to prove that it was navigable for steam vessels. The chapter concludes with an account of the progress of the African Steam Ship Company in the period 1863 to 1868 and outlines the company’s failure to expand as a contributing factor to the intervention of the competing line of The British and African Steam Navigation Company.Less
This chapter discusses Macgregor Laird’s involvement in the formation of the African Steam Ship Company and his role as its first managing director. It also discusses Laird’s personal and professional life as an early pioneer of West African Trade and shareholder in the African Inland Commercial Company. The chapter largely focuses on the usefulness of the River Niger as a ‘highway’ into Central Africa and accounts Laird’s own expedition up the river from October 1832 to August 1833, taken in order to prove that it was navigable for steam vessels. The chapter concludes with an account of the progress of the African Steam Ship Company in the period 1863 to 1868 and outlines the company’s failure to expand as a contributing factor to the intervention of the competing line of The British and African Steam Navigation Company.
Peter N. Davies
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780968128893
- eISBN:
- 9781786944757
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780968128893.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
This chapter provides an initial description of the three major groupings of West African merchants during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Niger Company, the Miller-Swanzy group and the ...
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This chapter provides an initial description of the three major groupings of West African merchants during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Niger Company, the Miller-Swanzy group and the African Association, and details their attempts to enter the shipping trade. The chapter focuses mainly on Alfred Lewis Jones’ decision to regulate the West African shipping trade via shipping conferences and explores his techniques and success rate in negotiating terms and agreements. It concludes with the eventual outcome of the conference in which Elder Dempster possessed an almost complete control of the British West African and West African carrying trade.Less
This chapter provides an initial description of the three major groupings of West African merchants during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Niger Company, the Miller-Swanzy group and the African Association, and details their attempts to enter the shipping trade. The chapter focuses mainly on Alfred Lewis Jones’ decision to regulate the West African shipping trade via shipping conferences and explores his techniques and success rate in negotiating terms and agreements. It concludes with the eventual outcome of the conference in which Elder Dempster possessed an almost complete control of the British West African and West African carrying trade.
Peter N. Davies
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780968128893
- eISBN:
- 9781786944757
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780968128893.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
This chapter studies the expansion of the network of activities built up by Elder Dempster and explores the ways in which Alfred Lewis Jones extended his power and reach across the shipping, trade ...
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This chapter studies the expansion of the network of activities built up by Elder Dempster and explores the ways in which Alfred Lewis Jones extended his power and reach across the shipping, trade and banking markets in West Africa and the United Kingdom. It examines the steps taken by Jones in order to maintain a foothold in the West African shipping business and discusses the methods used when approached with limitations on his authority, in the form of rivals, government regulation and criticism from the press and public opinion. The chapter also features a commentary of the personal and professional relationship between Jones and John Holt, and old colleague and friend.Less
This chapter studies the expansion of the network of activities built up by Elder Dempster and explores the ways in which Alfred Lewis Jones extended his power and reach across the shipping, trade and banking markets in West Africa and the United Kingdom. It examines the steps taken by Jones in order to maintain a foothold in the West African shipping business and discusses the methods used when approached with limitations on his authority, in the form of rivals, government regulation and criticism from the press and public opinion. The chapter also features a commentary of the personal and professional relationship between Jones and John Holt, and old colleague and friend.
Peter N. Davies
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780968128893
- eISBN:
- 9781786944757
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780968128893.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
This journal reprints the history of the Elder Dempster company by Peter N. Davies, from 1852-1972, originally published in 1973. It includes an additional chapter, also by Peter Davies, on the ...
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This journal reprints the history of the Elder Dempster company by Peter N. Davies, from 1852-1972, originally published in 1973. It includes an additional chapter, also by Peter Davies, on the history of the company from 1973-1989, covering its decline and final years. The purpose is to describe and analyse the economic history of the Elder Dempster shipping company and its predecessors, and provide an account of West African and British economic backgrounds. The journal is divided into five parts, each concerning a different era in the company’s history. Part 1 covers the formation of the African Steam Ship Company, which would eventually merge and become Elder Dempster; Part 2 covers the expansion of Elder Dempster and the partnership with Alfred Lewis Jones; Part 3 explores major historical events and their impact on Elder Dempster, including the Great War, the transition from war to peace, and the end of the Royal Mail group; Part 4 concerns the establishment of Elder Dempster Lines Limited, the emergence of successful rival companies, the Second World War and post-war reconstruction, and prediction for the company for the 1970s and beyond, as this part concluded the first edition of the history; Part 5 is a retrospective look at the 1970s and 1980s, and tracks the decline of Elder Dempster and the evolution of the Ocean Group.Less
This journal reprints the history of the Elder Dempster company by Peter N. Davies, from 1852-1972, originally published in 1973. It includes an additional chapter, also by Peter Davies, on the history of the company from 1973-1989, covering its decline and final years. The purpose is to describe and analyse the economic history of the Elder Dempster shipping company and its predecessors, and provide an account of West African and British economic backgrounds. The journal is divided into five parts, each concerning a different era in the company’s history. Part 1 covers the formation of the African Steam Ship Company, which would eventually merge and become Elder Dempster; Part 2 covers the expansion of Elder Dempster and the partnership with Alfred Lewis Jones; Part 3 explores major historical events and their impact on Elder Dempster, including the Great War, the transition from war to peace, and the end of the Royal Mail group; Part 4 concerns the establishment of Elder Dempster Lines Limited, the emergence of successful rival companies, the Second World War and post-war reconstruction, and prediction for the company for the 1970s and beyond, as this part concluded the first edition of the history; Part 5 is a retrospective look at the 1970s and 1980s, and tracks the decline of Elder Dempster and the evolution of the Ocean Group.
Peter N. Davies (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780969588559
- eISBN:
- 9781786944894
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780969588559.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
John Holt (1841-1915) was a successful British merchant who made several voyages to West Africa during his lifetime to establish business and trade in the era of British Imperialism. His diaries are ...
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John Holt (1841-1915) was a successful British merchant who made several voyages to West Africa during his lifetime to establish business and trade in the era of British Imperialism. His diaries are presented in two accounts; the first, from 1862-1872, documents his life as a merchant on the West African island of Fernando Po, initially working for James Lynslager and eventually purchasing the trade company and expanding it significantly. Holt’s own vessel, Maria, and his affiliation with the African Steam Ship Company, made his maritime trade activities particularly succssful. The second account records his voyage in the Maria from Liverpool to Fernando Po in 1869-1872, and documents his trade relationships across West Africa. The volume is rounded out by diary entries from the ten-day voyage of the Peep o’Day along the Krou coast, and concludes with John Holt’s family tree. This volume presents a comprehensive account of Holt’s life as a means of preserving history and adding to the field of study of mercantile livliehoods and shipping trade industries under British imperialism. It also seeks to celebrate the individual accomplishments made in John Holt’s career.Less
John Holt (1841-1915) was a successful British merchant who made several voyages to West Africa during his lifetime to establish business and trade in the era of British Imperialism. His diaries are presented in two accounts; the first, from 1862-1872, documents his life as a merchant on the West African island of Fernando Po, initially working for James Lynslager and eventually purchasing the trade company and expanding it significantly. Holt’s own vessel, Maria, and his affiliation with the African Steam Ship Company, made his maritime trade activities particularly succssful. The second account records his voyage in the Maria from Liverpool to Fernando Po in 1869-1872, and documents his trade relationships across West Africa. The volume is rounded out by diary entries from the ten-day voyage of the Peep o’Day along the Krou coast, and concludes with John Holt’s family tree. This volume presents a comprehensive account of Holt’s life as a means of preserving history and adding to the field of study of mercantile livliehoods and shipping trade industries under British imperialism. It also seeks to celebrate the individual accomplishments made in John Holt’s career.