Doing Well and Doing Good
Ross and Glendining: Scottish Enterprise in New Zealand

S.R.H Jones

Key Points

* Highly readable business history
* The story of Ross & Glendining & Co, at one time NZ's largest manufacturing business, which operated for more than a century
* Well researched, well written and of wide general interest
* Lays foundation for further work on NZ's business development

The Book

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries large numbers of Scots emigrated to seek their fortunes abroad. Better educated than the English and with a strong Presbyterian ethic, they were unusually successful in business and politics. This was true for New Zealand as elsewhere.

Ross & Glendining Ltd was founded in Dunedin in 1862, during the gold rush, by two contrasting characters: Caithness-born John Ross and Robert Glendining, from Dumfries. Initially a drapery importing business, it opened branches throughout New Zealand and warehouses in all the main centres. Careful management and efficient systems enabled the business to grow, despite strong competition from Australia. After the investment boom of the seventies, R&G began to diversify, investing in sheep runs, a woollen mill, other manufacturing, and even a coal mine. This history offers not only a portrait of a firm but a window on the development of the New Zealand economy and the emergence of a manufacturing sector.

Review Quotes

'I've no doubt Doing Well and Doing Good will be an important and very readable university text, but it is deserving of a wider readership.' – Otago Daily Times, Sat 27 March 2010.

Contents

Introduction: 1 Scottish Foundations 2 Early Days in Dunedin 3 Developing the Warehouse Business 4 Expansion during the Seventies Investment Boom 5 Mill Owners and manufacturers 6 Branching Out 7 Sheep Farming and the Development of Lauder Station 8 Gaining a National Foothold 9 Conflict 1889–1900 10 Government Policy and the Retreat from Sheep Farming 11 Struggle for Expansion – Roslyn Mills 12 Struggle for Expansion – The Factories 13 Struggle for Expansion – The Warehouses 14 London Office, 1900–14 15 making Money in Wartime 16 Readjustment and Retrenchment, 1918–26 17 The End of an Era 18 Depression and Recovery, 1926–39 19 Government Controls in War and Peace 20 Too Little, Too Late 21 Endgame, 1963–66

Author

Stephen Jones is a honorary research fellow in the Department of Economic Studies, University of Dundee. He has previously taught at universities in England, Australia, New Zealand and the US. He graduated from the London School of Economics after a career in the merchant navy and completed his PhD at London University. His research is mainly concerned with the development of firms and markets.

Publication details

IN-STORES February 2010
CATEGORY History/Business studies
FORMAT 235 x 155 mm, pb
EXTENT 300 pp approx
ILLNS b/w photographs
ISBN ISBN 978 1 877372 74 2
PRICE $49.95 approx / £24.50 approx UK