Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - The Penarth Harbour, Dock & Railway Co. dispute with Messrs. Smith, Knight & Co. . .

1866 (August) - The Whole of the Valuable and Extensive Plant used in the construction of Penarth Dock - "Messrs. Watkins and Stephenson are instructed by the Directors of the Penarth Harbour, Dock and Railway Company to Sell by Auction, at the Dock Works, Penarth, near Cardiff, on Tuesday . . " Leeds Mercury [195] 4th August 1866.

1866 (November) - Smith, Knight and Co. - "A meeting of the shareholders of Smith, Knight and Co., Limited, was held on Wednesday, at which it was unanimously resolved to wind up voluntarily under the supervision of the Court of Chancery, Messrs. Thomas Cave, M.P., Mr. Alderman Dakin, Mr. S Howard, and Mr. Young being appointed liquidators. About a year ago the Board was reconstituted, and the directors have since been engaged in carrying on the various works which the company has undertaken. Some of the shareholders, however, invoked the intervention of the Court, which brought things to the present position. The Company represent contractors for the Penarth Docks, between whom and the company there is a hugh unliquidated balance of disputed account." Cardiff Times [019] 16th November 1866.

1866 (December) - Smith, Knight and Co. Limited - "At an Extraordinary General Meeting of the shareholders held at the London Tavern on the 14th November 1866 it was resolved:- That Smith, Knight, and Co. (Limited) be would up voluntarily dissolved under the Companies Act, 1862, subject to the supervision of the Court of Chancery, be and the same is hereby confirmed. - Thos. Cave, Chairman." London Gazette [100] 11th December 1866.

The failure of Smith, Knight, and Company Limited was not just related to the dispute with the Penarth Company but also to the deteriorating financial climate. The book, 'Money and Power : Essays in Honour of L. S. Pressnell' provides an overview :

'With the impact of the American post-war import demand and the consequent resurgence of the bullion drain to the Orient, monetary conditions tightened sharply in the autumn of 1865 and Bank Rate rose from 5 per cent on 2 October to 7 per cent on 7 October. Security prices fell, even the shares of leading London joint-stock banks. Furthermore, the autumnal credit stringency began to reveal deeper problems of which a pointer for the future was the failure of the railway contracting firm of Smith, Knight & Co. Ltd., and the consequent discovery that it had been unsound when it had been converted to a limited company.