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A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Edinburgh Printing Industry
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Decline and Development
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw improved conditions
within the workplace matched by increased production and a high
reputation for the products of Edinburgh’s printing presses.
The industrial troubles of earlier times were not repeated to the
same extent; the lock-outs of 1912 and 1916 did not involve as many
men as earlier disputes and were of comparatively short duration.
The main exception, in terms of numbers if not time, was the General
Strike of 1926.
At the time of the General Strike the Scottish Typographical Association
had recently made an agreement with the employers that 14 days notice
would be given of any strike action, including any General Strike.
However, when the T.U.C. issued the order to strike, the Scottish
Typographical Association did so and Edinburgh’s printing presses
came to a standstill. When the Strike was just as suddenly called
off nine days later it left the print workers in a very difficult
position, having torn up their agreement with their employers. The
T.U.C. would not or could not attempt to safeguard the jobs of strikers,
leaving individual members in a very isolated position. However,
the Master Printers Association approached the S.T.A. with a compromise
solution and an agreement was soon reached which, in the book printing
industry at least, allowed for a return to normal working with a
minimum of bitterness.
Issues within the printing industry had begun to take on a different
aspect; rather than wages, hours or apprenticeship schemes, the
growing use of female labour and steadily rising unemployment became
the main concerns against a background of economic uncertainty.
If very little could be done about levels of unemployment, strenuous
efforts were made to control the use of female workers. In the first
decade of the twentieth century it was estimated that there were
between 700 and 800 female compositors in Edinburgh who were increasingly
occupied in working the new composing Monotype machines. The fact
that women received roughly half the wages of men made this an important
issue. In 1910 an agreement was reached which meant that no new
women would be admitted to the compositors’ trade and in the
following year those already in it formed the Edinburgh Female Compositors
Society. Although this agreement put an end to the training of female
compositors (as well as leading to an increase of 50 per cent in
their wages), many women continued to be employed within the industry
in other tasks.
General economic conditions in the first half of the twentieth century
were not very favourable for the printing industry in Edinburgh.
The years immediately following World War I and the years 1931—32
were the worst for unemployment. The trade suffered from many economic
difficulties. For example, the reputation for quality which Edinburgh
had attained led to the payment of high wages, allowing undercutting
by competitors who were also nearer the main market of London. At
the same time the demand for high quality books was lessened by
the spread of the lending library and the increasing availability
of good, cheap editions of popular works. This was an aspect of
the market which the Edinburgh printers had also sought to exploit.
R. & R. Clark, for example, had for years been producing the
Sixpenny Waverly series issuing all of Scott’s novels in bright
paper covers in editions of hundreds of thousands, selling at 6d.
each.
Even among this general atmosphere of decline, firms did manage
to flourish and the expansion of certain firms (usually through
amalgamation) is a keynote of this period.
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Volume 1, published 1990
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