The Motor Vehicle Industry

Abstract

This chapter examines the origins, development and economic impact of the motor vehicle up to the early 1920s. Beyond these pioneering days the industry grew in importance and its structure was significantly altered. However, many modern features of the industry such as mass production, oligopoly, overseas investment and marketing policies found their origins in the pre-1918 period. In some respects the car industry throws wider light upon the comparative economic performances of European countries. France’s volume leadership of the European vehicle industry casts doubt upon her alleged economic retardation at the end of the nineteenth century, while the steady progress of British motor engineering questions her supposed technological backwardness. Historians have dwelt upon the inability of the European vehicle industry to keep pace with the expansion of its American counterpart which they seek to explain either in terms of entrepreneurial conservatism or an inadequate market. Growth in Europe was, nonetheless, rapid and its economic impact requires some assessment.