PART SEVEN - Qualcast in Perspective

Qualcast's move to Australia should be considered an unqualified success.
The company did expand to become one of the top three lawnmower
manufacturers in this country in the interwar years.

The benefit went to Australia too; not just in terms of establishing another
Australian secondary industry, and employing a largely Australian workforce,
but in making quality lawnmowers available at a cheaper price. In this article -
from February, 1934 - the worst effects of the Depression were over, and sales
were booming.

The most significant quote comes from the MD of Qualcast Australia, this time
'Major' Briggs (rather than 'Captain'), when he says, "Tariff protection had
enabled the industry to recapture the home trade against foreign rivals".

In a certain way, this is a hilarious statement. Qualcast, a British company,
was not regarded as 'foreign': Having come here, the 'recapturing' of the
market against 'foreign rivals' was a clear reference to a systemic shift in
imports from the 'foreign' USA towards local 'Australian' manufacturer of
lawnmowers (even if that included overseas companies).

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I have argued here that American mowers dominated the Australian lawnmower market
from the late 19th Century up to the tariff imposts of 1930.

In this most amazing article from 1939, we hear of an anecdote told to a Tariff
Board inquiry by Mr Briggs (no Captain or Major here). Today, the actions of the
American mower makers would be highly illegal.

The Briggs anecdote, before a formal inquiry, tells the story of collusion between
four American lawnmower firms to 'kill' Qualcast Australia! I feel this is a great
example of the commercial hostility that must have prevailed at the time. As I said,
the Americans lost their dominance.

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TO BE CONTINUED ...