TY - JOUR
T1 - Management and the Free Standing Company
T2 - The New Zealand and Australia Land Company c. 1866 – 1900
AU - Tennent, Kevin Daniel
PY - 2013/2/22
Y1 - 2013/2/22
N2 - Historians of both British foreign investment and Empire have long been interested in the role of British capital flows from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Capital was put to a range of uses, and raised in a variety of ways, all of which affected the impact of these flows in particular regions. British investments in pastoral activities were crucial influences in the Australasian rural economy. Despite the recent work of Simon Ville, and the older work of J.D. Bailey and others, the specific dynamics of these companies and their broader impact requires more work. The balance of power within such firms’ management could be crucial to their success. In 1988 the business historian Mira Wilkins coined the term ‘free-standing companies’ to describe such firms, claiming that they usually failed to develop management structures suited to deal with the disadvantage of distance. This paper examines the New Zealand and Australian Land Company Ltd. (NZALC), which took over a disparate chain of almost 40 properties on both side of the Tasman Sea comprising over 2.5million acres of land. Over a century the company gradually consolidated these lands, enclosing them, sowing English grass in New Zealand, sinking wells in Australia and managed the environment to maximise potential profits. Wool, frozen meat, and chilled dairy products were then transported back to the UK market. This process was closely managed from Scotland, as the NZALC developed into the world’s largest agricultural company by 1900 and played a key role in instigating New Zealand’s export trade in frozen meat and dairy products. The paper concludes that the Head Office of a Free Standing company was not necessarily an impediment to the company, but actually was capable of being a strong force determining the success of the company as an organisation and shaping its impact.
AB - Historians of both British foreign investment and Empire have long been interested in the role of British capital flows from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Capital was put to a range of uses, and raised in a variety of ways, all of which affected the impact of these flows in particular regions. British investments in pastoral activities were crucial influences in the Australasian rural economy. Despite the recent work of Simon Ville, and the older work of J.D. Bailey and others, the specific dynamics of these companies and their broader impact requires more work. The balance of power within such firms’ management could be crucial to their success. In 1988 the business historian Mira Wilkins coined the term ‘free-standing companies’ to describe such firms, claiming that they usually failed to develop management structures suited to deal with the disadvantage of distance. This paper examines the New Zealand and Australian Land Company Ltd. (NZALC), which took over a disparate chain of almost 40 properties on both side of the Tasman Sea comprising over 2.5million acres of land. Over a century the company gradually consolidated these lands, enclosing them, sowing English grass in New Zealand, sinking wells in Australia and managed the environment to maximise potential profits. Wool, frozen meat, and chilled dairy products were then transported back to the UK market. This process was closely managed from Scotland, as the NZALC developed into the world’s largest agricultural company by 1900 and played a key role in instigating New Zealand’s export trade in frozen meat and dairy products. The paper concludes that the Head Office of a Free Standing company was not necessarily an impediment to the company, but actually was capable of being a strong force determining the success of the company as an organisation and shaping its impact.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84874207283&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/03086534.2013.762158
DO - 10.1080/03086534.2013.762158
M3 - Article
SN - 0308-6534
VL - 41
SP - 81
EP - 97
JO - Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
JF - Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
IS - 1
ER -