This chapter examines the records of Armstrongs and Vickers in selling armaments in Asia over a century. As part of their foreign policy strategies, the firms built diplomatic relationships with states in the region– independent of the British Government– using their own agent-diplomats and reaped impressive rewards for their labors. At the start of the Armstrongs pioneered many gun and warship deals with China (aided by Sir Robert Hart) and Japan. Armstrongs created lasting relationships with key Chinese and Japanese government officials, hosting numerous delegations, and many of the firms’ management received state decorations for their services. The relationship between Armstrongs and China spanned more than six decades and survived several changes of regime. After Vickers moved into warship production just before the turn of the century, they also began to secure lucrative contracts in the region, sometimes competing with Armstrongs and sometimes allying with her. Business was interrupted by the Great War. Weapons ordered by Siam before the war were delivered afterwards. In the interwar period armament sales did not match their previous levels, though Vickers-Armstrongs vigorously pursued Chinese sales.

Over the century considered here there were two overriding problems for Armstrongs and Vickers in doing business with the Ottoman Empire. First, the Empire’s constant indebtedness; they always needed loans to buy weaponry and had a habit of falling behind in payments. Second, the British Government followed its own diktats and would annoy the Ottoman rulers. Therefore Armstrongs– and later Vickers– despite pursuing independent policies, were often disadvantaged by being seen as British firms, showing the limitations of the firms’ independent diplomacy and marketing. Armstrongs through its alliance with Ansaldo– accidentally– discovered a route around the problem of guilt by association, and for a short time profited handsomely from that strategy. Having battled with Germany to secure plum contracts, on the eve of the Great War the British Government thwarted Turkey by commandeering the Sultan Osman I and the Reshadieh dreadnoughts built by Armstrongs and Vickers. This affected relations with Turkey until she joined the Allies in World War Two, after which she got British Export Credits. Postwar Turkey was granted American military aid, closing the market to Vickers-Armstrongs.