Final+Statistics

=__Statistics of Project Findings__=

The Excel document below contains the completed statistics for the project.

Stats Guide
Or alternatively see the comments in the embedded spreadsheet for the same details. This explains the headings for each of the columns.

An asterix in a column indicates a certain amount of doubt over the information in the field.

Rank
Ranked by registered number at Companies House

Name; Official Status; Incorporation Date; Registered Number
As supplied by Companies House, Edinburgh

Trading Status
If the company is listed as ‘Active’ or ‘In Liquidation’ by Companies House, this indicates its current trading position. Independent- has no parent company (though may have subsidiaries) Active subsidiary- a company still operating within a larger framework of companies, though is controlled by a parent company Dormant subsidiary- a company absorbed into a larger group and is effectively inactive, though the name has been retained and the company still technically exists Dormant- exists in name only; the company is not actively trading This measure has been assigned by the BACS surveying officer according to his research to better explain the ‘Official Status’ indicator.

Active Successor
If a company has been listed as ‘Dissolved’, this measure indicates whether there is a successor- either a company that trades using the same brand or company name, or has taken on or absorbed the significant assets of the company and has continued trading.

Change of Name
As supplied to Companies House, or as uncovered through further research into the company. Doubt over this is indicated by an asterix.

Historical Records, Archive Facility
This indicates if any historical records of the company survive and if these records have been deposited within a designated archive facility.

Foreign activity
This measure suggests that research into indicates that a company had active presence outside of the UK. This might be investment in foreign companies, insuring ventures abroad, overseas branches, overseas assets (like tea plantations) or overseas production plants (like jute mills). Note that it does not indicate that a company exported goods, or if a company had foreign employees/board members.

Free Standing Companies
These are defined as companies registered in one country, but who operate entirely in another. The purposes for this are to compare the surviving companies to those analysed by Kevin Tennent in Tracing Scottish Free-Standing Companies in Business Archives; Sources and Hostory No. 96 November 2008.

Change of function
Indicates if a company has changed its defined function (as given to Companies House). I have not indicated this when companies become dormant, a holding company or a non-trading company.

England & Wales Function
Enables comparison with Lesley Richmond’s survey of the 1000 oldest companies still extant in England and Wales by function.

Payne 1980 by function
Enables Comparison with Peter Payne’s studies in the first Scottish companies 1856-1895 whose records are held in the BT2 collection at the National Archive of Scotland (1980). Payne used an earlier version of the industrial classification system (1968 revision) still in use at Companies House. This uses the classification in appendix one of Payne pp110-113.