Founded in 1624, the Cutlers' Company of Hallamshire has played a crucial role in the history of Sheffield, as supervisor and regulator of cutlery and steel trades in "the steel capital of the world." This book, written by noted scholars and experts, provides a history of the company and its activities.

The book provides an important contribution to the technological and commercial history of crucible and electric steelmaking by thoroughly examining its development in Sheffield and American centres such as Pittsburgh. It also discusses cutlery, saw and file manufacturing, where the Americans quickly shed Sheffield's traditional technologies and, with the help of superior marketing, established a word lead by 1900. It is also shown, however, that this did not free the US from its dependence on Sheffield steel. Sheffield's innovation in special steelmaking, which began with the Hunstman crucible process in 1742, continued with a series of brilliant 'firsts', which gave the world tool, manganese, silicon, vanadium and stainless steel alloys. Thus the US continued to draw from Sheffield know-how, even in the twentieth century - a transfer of technology that was facilitated by the foundation of Sheffield's own subsidiary firms in America, the history of which is recounted here.

The book focuses on the historical evolution of firms, and industry leaders and their strategies. Sheffield's experience is then related to current historical and economic debates about industrial structure, entrepreneurship and UK decline. Sheffield is revealed (with some important qualifications) as a remarkably enduring and successful centre; and also a highly complex one, which cannot be fitted easily into present theories of mass production and entrepreneurial failure.