EXAMINE TWO KEY WELSH
INDUSTRIES GIVING REASONS FOR THEIR GROWTH IN THE 19TH CENTURY, and ACCOUNT FOR THEIR STATE IN THE 20TH CENTURY.
I've had a good life, and I daresay death will be the best of it yet.
'Man of the Valleys' (Mary Paget, (1985)).
Within the history of the Welsh coal
field, it is known that, coal had been used for copper and iron smelting as far
back as the 17th century, It was not really utilised in any great
amount until Abraham Derby's invention of 'coke'. From this invention, the iron masters along
the northern coal 'outcrops' began to expand using this new variation of
coal. So big was the wealth and power
of these iron-masters that they where able to sink their own mines. These
'mines' where at first shallow 'bell-pits', but as technology increased they
sank proper mines. (By 1840, about 2 Million/Tons p.a. where being used by
the iron trade and, about 1 Million Tons p.a. in the copper industry).
Surplus coal from these pits as 'sale-coal'
equalled 1.5 Million/tons. (All this was before any transport infrastructure
was in place). The very diversity of coal types i.e. Bituminous, (soft
'gassy' coal), Steam, (high carbon content), and Anthracite, (hard slow
burning coal) etc. found favour in almost every industry. Coal production
rose from 4.5 million/tons in 1840, to 56.8 million/tons by 1914.
The catalyst that brought the
subsequent growth was firstly the building of canals to move the coal,
(previously carried by packhorses), to the coast. The expansion of Cardiff
docks (1839) by Marquis of Bute allowed the export potential
to be increased. Dock expansion and building continued along the coast at Swansea,
Newport, and Barry (1850s) etc. The building of the railways in the 1840s
allowed the rapid (all downhill) transit of coal from the pit to the port. The
interconnection of the various new 'valley' railways allowed all pits to
move their coal to the docks. (Some 29 million/tons where exported)
The acceptance by the 'Admiralty' (1840s)
and later the giant shipping companies ensured an exclusive market for Welsh
'steam-coal'. Added to this was the
Welsh coal 'bunkering' depots that John Cory built around
the world. Between 1890-1912, the stage was set for the formation of the huge
coal combines who together could keep overall prices at competitive rates to
ensure the continuing markets. ('Ocean', 'Cambrian Combine', and
Powell-Duffryn' etc).
However the peak was beginning to flatten out by 1913,
and although World War 1, gave a boost to the coal business, (with huge
trainloads going directly to Scapa Flow), The demise of the copper and iron
trade also decreased the need for coal. Coal had to give way to the newer
inventions of the 19th/20th century. The increasing use of oil, petrol, and
electricity etc for power, shipping, and transport was an obvious progressive
step. Added to this was the acrimony between the miners and the coal-owners,
which increasingly caused many strikes. and loss of production.
The
final straw was the 1984-5 strike, which was seen by the 'Tories'
as a threat to their power. Thus almost in spite, the government began a
wholesale closing of perceived uneconomic pits. Next came the encouragement of
cheap coal imports to make Welsh coal seem even more expensive, (even the
steel industry used imported coal), and finally the closing of the rest of
the pits. Thus the Welsh coal industry was strangled and is now no more.
Further north yet another extractive industry, the extraction of slate was also
dying out.
To
begin with, the extraction of slate was an isolated affair. The quarry man
leased an outcrop of slate rock on an annual basis. This produced little profit, as there was no infrastructure for
the transport of the slate other than local sales.
The
increasing need for slate attracted the interests of entrepreneurs; In 1765 Richard
Pennant (an already rich merchant in the slave trades) married into the
Warburton family and inherited the Penrhyn Estates
in Snowdonia. He cleared the itinerant slate workers off the estate and by 1782
he set about developing the quarries at Bethesda (Penrhyn Quarry).
Other entrepreneurs such as Mr Asherton-Smith developed the now
famous Dinorwic Quarries.
Later the quarries around Blaenau Ffestiniog where developed by a
consortium from Lancashire. Thus the scene was set for the commercial
exploitation of the slate industry. (Profits
from Dinorwic rose from £9,802 in 1816 to £24,945 by 1862, Dorothea Quarries
profit rose from £2,639 to £14,735 by 1875)
The
lack of an integrated transport system in order to move the slate to its
markets forced the quarry owners to build their own narrow gauge railways and
ports on the Welsh coast. (Portmadoc exports rose from 4,275 tons in 1836 to
120,000 tons by 1882). All told, by 1898 about 500,000 tons of slate was
extracted and sold. The building of a G.W.R. line through the area allowed
inland sales to increase, making not only roofing slates, but blackboards,
dairy slabs, and billiard table bases etc.
However
this boom was not to last. The quarry owners competed against each other for
diminishing markets. Lack of
investment, and modern machinery made extraction more and more expensive. The
working conditions of the men where atrocious, unrest caused many strikes, (1874,1885,1896,
and the 3yr lockout in 1900-3). The workforce diminished from 16,000
in 1898 to 8,000 by 1914.The final straw came with the invention of 'tiles'
which where cheaper to produce than slates.
Nowadays
the quarries still produce some roofing slate for prestige buildings, and slate
dust is also used to bind polymers, but mainly quarries have moved into the
tourist trade with tours of the caverns, and the manufacture of 'craft
products' for visitors.
In
conclusion, one must say that the coal industry was a 'product of its time',
and that in the 18th and 19th century 'Coal was
King'. Its demise was a result of invention and use of oil-based
derivatives. One must add that the 'Thatcher Era' added the final
coup de grace because of its perceived fear of insurrection by the miners. That
slate 'Roofed the World was again a truism. As in coal, the
invention of a cheaper comparable product (Tiles) at a cheaper price plus the
continual acrimony between the quarry men and the owners pushed slate out of
common usage. Wales nowadays relies on service industries, and foreign
investments to provide work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Egan,D Coal
Society. (Gomer Press, Swansea. 1987).
Jenkins,J. History
of Modern Wales,1536-1990. (Longman,London. 1992).
Lindsay,J. North
Wales Slate Industry. (David & Charles, London 1974).
Morris et al, The
South Wales Coal Industry. (U.O.W. Press, Cardiff. 1958).
Paget,M. Man
of the Valleys. (Sutton Press, Gloucester. 1985).
Simpkin,J. Wales
in Industrial Britain. (Spartacus Press, Brighton. 1993).
Williams,D. History
of Modern Wales. (Murray, London.1950).