efficiency liberalism and manufacturing
I am aiming to blend German efficiency and manufacturing with British liberalism and mercantile know how to get two countries who are friendly and share more similar outlooks than they did in OTL. (Last_0f_Stuarts)
Thanks for the clarification.
It is true that by the 1900s Britain and Germany were at loggerheads and conducting an arms race, but this was not so earlier on. The British Royal Family was as German as the soon-to-be-Kaiser's already at your POD. But Britain was a constitutional monarchy and the Saxe-Coburgs had nowhere near the power of the Hohenzollerns.
I would suggest that the period say 1850-1870 saw Britain and the incipient German Empire as close as you could wish, OTL.
If your object is to 'blend German efficiency and manufacturing with British liberalism you have something of a problem X 3.
Victorian Age businessmen only had to be comparatively efficient, compared that is, to the other manufacturers in the market. In real terms their Victorian Age levels of efficiency scraped the floor: they were dreadful.
From Germany Alfred Krupp of Essen toured England earlier in the century and copied many of the processes used but also kept a closed mouth about his own experiments. certainly he could cast larger steel ingots than anyone in the world at the time of your POD. But as far as manufacturing is concerned, these guys were years behind the diversity of British manufacturing - mainly because they had smaller and poorer markets to sell into.
As for British liberalism with or without a capital letter, don't forget the country was half Conservative. I think it is Gilbert in Iolanthe who put it best in 1883:
SCENE. – Palace Yard, Westminster. Westminster Hall, L. Clock tower up, R.C. PRIVATE WILLIS discovered on sentry, R. Moonlight.
SONG – PRIVATE WILLIS.
When all night long a chap remains
On sentry-go, to chase monotony
He exercises of his brains,
That is, assuming that he’s got any.
Though never nurtured in the lap
Of luxury, yet I admonish you,
I am an intellectual chap,
And think of things that would astonish you.
I often think it’s comical – Fal, lal, la!
How Nature always does contrive – Fal, lal, la!
That every boy and every gal
That’s born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative!
Fal, lal, la!
When in that House M.P.’s divide,
If they’ve a brain and cerebellum, too,
They’ve got to leave that brain outside,
And vote just as their leaders tell ’em to.
But then the prospect of a lot
Of dull M. P.’s in close proximity,
All thinking for themselves, is what
No man can face with equanimity.
Then let’s rejoice with loud Fal la – Fal la la!
That Nature always does contrive – Fal lal la!
That every boy and every gal
That’s born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative!
Fal lal la!
(Enter Fairies, with CELIA, LEILA, and FLETA. They trip round stage.)
And if you'll just excuse me I shall now trip off stage.
