Ogden's Tobacco Factory, Liverpool
History can often be hidden in plain sight. How many times have we all walked past an old building, without ever taking a moment to stop and think about what history could be hidden within its walls? Ogden’s Tobacco Factory in Everton is one of those buildings. Opened in 1899, it became the headquarters of one of Britain’s largest tobacco companies and hired over 2,000 people at its peak.
However, if you were to walk past today, all you would see
is a historic apartment building surrounded by new builds. With smoking quickly
falling out of fashion in Britain, the factory closed its doors for good in
2007. After its closure, English Heritage was quick to secure a grade 2 listing
for the factory’s office block and clock tower and today they are all that
remain of the original site. You would be forgiven for not thinking anything
more of the site, however this old factory was once at the centre of an
international trade war which helped shape the modern tobacco industry.
While gentlemanly agreements were forming the basis of the
British market, just over the pond in the United States, American business
practices were astonishingly brutal. In 1881, American industrialist, James
Buchanan Duke utilised a newly invented cigarette rolling machine which could
produce over 200 cigarettes a minute, an amount which would take skilled hand
roller an hour. Producing cigarettes at such a rate meant Duke could undercut
all his American competition and in just 9 years he forced them all to join his
consortium, the American Tobacco Company (ATC). In less than a decade, Duke had
completely monopolised the American market, producing 90% of the country’s
cigarettes.
It is then fair to understand the panic felt among British
tobacco firms when this American industrialist set his sights on the British
market, his opening line in a meeting with the owners of JPS being, “Hello boys
– I’m Duke from New York, come to buy your business”. This is the part where
Ogden’s played a vital role in what would become a ruthless trade war between
American and British firms. Duke made his first move by purchasing the
Liverpool firm in 1901, sending British businesses into a frenzy. With the ATC
showing clear intent to monopolise the British market, as it hand done in the
United States, Britain’s 13 largest tobacco firms came together and formed
their own consortium, the Imperial Tobacco Company.
In 1901 the world’s two economic powerhouses both had their
tobacco markets completely dominated by huge consortiums. With their unparalleled
global influence, these two firms went head to head over the next year in what
would become known as the 1901-1902 ‘Anglo-American Tobacco War’.
Just as he had done in the United States, Duke first tried
to take over Britain by undercutting his competition. By attempting to sell his
products at a cheaper rate than the British firms, Duke forced Imperial to respond
in a highly risky move. Imperial quickly invested in buying hundreds of their own
shops where they would only sell their own products. In addition, they rewarded
retailers who refused to sell Dukes products a handsome annual bonus. These
small tit for tat tactics caried on for some months, however, the turning point
in the war came when British firms decided to take the fight to Duke, go on the
offensive, and expand their businesses into the United States.
The tobacco war had become extremely costly for both sides
at this point, and with the threat of the war coming to his domestic market,
Duke was eager to find a resolution and the ceasefire was signed in 1902. While
the war had seen the worlds largest markets completely monopolise under two
competing consortiums, Dukes peace agreement with British firms would go on to
shape the modern tobacco industry, with effects that can still be seen today. The two consortiums joined together to create
the British American Tobacco Company, using their combined wealth and power to
expand to new markets and in 2019 they brought in over £25 billion in revenues.
The Anglo-American Tobacco War undoubtably changed, not just
Britain’s tobacco industry, but also the foundations of global trade. Its’
effects have been huge and is directly responsible for the formation monolithic
companies which have dominated the global tobacco market for over 100 years. When
looking at histories such as these it can be easy to focus on the big names and
events, however it’s places like Ogden’s Tobacco Factory in Liverpool which
have shaped history in an incomprehensible way. What is now just an apartment
building, was once at the centre of a trade war which shaped the world we know
today, yet very few who walk past it will ever know the history they’ve missed.
Jordan Harris
References
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8490490.stm
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25119262
https://archive.org/details/cigarettecentury00bran
https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/2363/
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