The Devil Within: Ogden's Role in the Anglo-American Tobacco War of 1901-02

In the struggle to increase its market share in Britain, the (non-hostile) takeover by James Duke’s American Tobacco Company of the Ogden Tobacco Company of Liverpool was the focal point of the conflict. The recently available archive of Ogden’s business papers at the Liverpool Record Office allows the well-known account of the Tobacco War to be reconsidered from the point of view of the firm whose products were the focus of the competitive struggle. Ogden’s records illustrate quite clearly how the strategy employed by Duke sought to use his ownership of the Liverpool firm to prosecute the war. Although it has generally been argued that Duke’s British invasion was effectively thwarted through the creation of the Imperial Tobacco Company, an assessment of the war through the lens of the Ogden’s firm places a different perspective on the outcome of the conflict.