restrictive practices." - Meaning and context.">
p. 108
“

The audit of the Great War showed up widespread human weaknesses in British industry. Too many British capitalists in their boardrooms were simply self-trained "practical men" smugly content with old products, old equipment and old markets, guided by a concern for short-term profits rather than for the long-term development of their businesses. The trade unions...were resolutely resistant to new technology, while also holding back productivity by a maze of demarcations and restrictive practices.

— Correlli Barnett

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The audit of the Great War showed up widespread human weaknesses in British industry. Too many British capitalists in their boardrooms were simply self-trained "practical men" smugly content with old products, old equipment and old markets, guided by a concern for short-term profits rather than for the long-term development of their businesses. The trade unions...were resolutely resistant to new technology, while also holding back productivity by a maze of demarcations and restrictive practices." in the context of "p. 108" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Correlli Barnett" (Quotes, 1990s, The Audit of the Great War on British Technology (1999): 'The Audit of the Great War on British Technology', in Jean-Pierre Dormois and Michael Dintenfass (eds.), The British Industrial Decline (1999)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 19, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

About Correlli Barnett

Correlli Douglas Barnett (28 June 1927 – 10 July 2022) was an English military historian, who also wrote works of economic history, particularly on the United Kingdom's post-war "industrial decline".