Page 583 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

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ActA
the merchandise to the likes and pockets of their clientele, their unwillingness to try out
new products and new sectors, the expectation that everyone in the world should know
the English language and count in Sterling pounds. The British manufacturer was known
for his indifference towards style, for his conservativeness toward new techniques, for
his reluctance to abandon traditional individualism for the implicit uniformity of mass
production. The German entrepreneur on the other hand was “a new man”. Besides,
young British companies were unable to make up for the old companies shortcomings
for the following reasons: normal friction of the market, increasing difficulty to enter
in the market itself, especially in fields such as metallurgy which required for example
great structures near sources of energy, a general withdrawal of talents from the old fields
of manufacturing; the low profitability justified this abandonment but simultaneously
made things worse. Mass leisure and related activities became a powerful force on the
market and the field of services started growing at the same rate, consequently talents
started moving in that direction. In the end, the hardships of the British industry were
connected to:lack of specialized personnel and lack of venture capital. Preparation is
fundamental and related to education, which from a technological point of view can be
articulated in 4 different abilities:
1°: Literacy: the ability to read, write and do calculations;
2°: Professional know-how of artisans and mechanics;
3°: The combination of scientific principles and practical training belonging to engineers
and technicians;
4°: Higher levels of scientific knowledge, both theoretically and practically.
In all four fields, Germany represented the best Europe had to offer, and England,
exception made perhaps for the second field, was very much behind.
Why?
The function of the first ability was to ensure selection of talents. England preferred
leaving teaching to zeal, unconcern or to the employment of private initiatives. It wasn’t
only a matter of “laissez-faire”: for every idealist or visionary that saw in education
a means to creating illuminated citizens, there was a lot of “practical people” which
considered education to be an unnecessary baggage for farmhand and factory workers.
The essential goal of mandatory elementary education wasn’t even to teach, rather to
discipline a growing mass of alienated proletarians and to integrate them in British
society. In Germany on the other hand, since 1773 with the General landschulereglement
school functioned as the expression of a deeply rooted belief that school was a corner
stone of the social building, not only a duty of the state but an advantage for the state.
In relation with the other levels of education, the greater complexity and precision
of industrial machinery and a more careful control of quality moved to promote higher
levels of technical competence and awareness. The mutation of scientific content in
technology forced control personnel and the same workers to familiarize with new
concepts that would enormously increase the prestige of personal training to keep up
with new scientific findings, appreciate the financial importance and adapt them to
production needs.
While England was leaving technical training such as primary education to private