Combined Efforts: Holts and the Conference System

Shipping conferences have loomed large in the history of Alfred Holt and Co. From the latter part of the nineteenth century conference affairs have been an enduring and integral part of Holts’ prosperity and management responsibilities. The Holt story must be concerned with shipping conferences for several interconnected reasons. First, Alfred and Philip Holt were closely, though often reluctantly, involved with John Swire in the foundation of the first and ultimately one of the most important and long-lasting conferences in 1879, the China and Japan Conference (termed the Straits, China and Japan Conference in 1911 and the Far Eastern Freight Conference from 1941). Second, membership of various conferences has played a significant role determining the structure of freight rates, the routes operated, and the ports of loading and discharging. Thus both the prosperity and shape of Blue Funnel services have evolved for most of the company’s history within the framework of the conference system. Moreover from the days of Richard Holt the Company’s Managers have always been staunch upholders of the conference system and have devoted a great deal of time to its affairs. Richard Holt himself, Leonard Cripps, John Hobhouse, Herbert McDavid, Roland Thornton, John Nicholson, Lindsay Alexander, and others have made notable contributions to the management of the company’s conference affairs.