Wat Niwet Thammaprawat, Ayutthaya. On a recent visit to Ayutthaya I called in at the intriguing Wat Niwet Thammaprawat. Ring a bell and monks will bring you across. A visit to Wat Niwet Thammaprawat can also be tied in with a trip to Bang Pa-In Palace which lies on the opposite bank.
DESCRIPTION IRON AND STEEL IN THE INDUSTRIALREVOLUTIONThis contribution to the history of the English Iron Industryis the product of the leisure, not of an historian, but of oneengaged in teaching economic theory. The materials onwhich it is based were collected when I was on the staff firstof the University of Sheffield, then of the University ofBirmingham; but most of the actual writing has been done inManchester.A generation ago writers on modern economic historyfound their principal quarry in blue-books. ParliamentaryJournals, and other Government records. Hence arose notonly an over-estimate of the part played by the State ineconomic development, but also, perhaps, an unduly gloomyview of former industrial society; for it is the Pathology,rather than the Physiology, of social life that forms the subjectof commissions of enquiry, of Home Office reports, and ofparliamentary debates.
Within the last few years a smallgroup of scholars has attempted to re-write the economichistory of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, usingas a basis the surviving records of business undertakings.The University of Manchester already possesses the completedocuments of four such concerns, and it is hoped thatproprietors of long-established businesses will add to thecollection. By so doing they will help to a truer view of thepast, and therefore to a clearer understanding of the present.They need have no misgivings concerning publicity. Housesthat have stood the test of a century were not built, shamefully,on sand: their foundations will bear scrutiny.The writer was not so fortunate as to find his materialhoused and catalogued in the archives of a single institution; and many, often hasty, visits had to be made to libraries andironworks in various parts of the country. Of ^iatxhuHtbrartf HPUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTERECONOMIC HISTORY SERIESNo.
IIIRON AND STEEL IN THE INDUSTRIALREVOLUTIONPublished by the University of Manchester atTHE UNIVERSITY PRESS (H. McKechnie, M.A., Secretary)23 Lime Grove, Oxford Road, MANCHESTERLONGMANS, GREEN & CO.London: 39 Paternoster Row, E.C.4New York: 55 Fifth AvenueToronto: 210 Victoria StreetBombay: 336 Hornby RoadCalcutta: 6 Old Court House StreetMadras: 167 Mount RoadDigitized by the Internet Archivein 2010 with funding fromLyrasis IVIembers and Sloan FoundationAND STEEL IN THEINDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONBYTHOMAS SOUTHCLIFFE ASHTON, M.A.Senior Lecturer in Economics in the University of Manchester' For even iron too which locks up allother treasures, comes out of England.' Henry Belasyse, 1657.Manchester -At the University PressLondon, New York, &c.: Longmans, Green & Co.1924PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTERNo. CLXIVMADE IN ENGLANDAll rights reservedPREFACE.This contribution to the history of the English Iron Industryis the product of the leisure, not of an historian, but of oneengaged in teaching economic theory.
The materials onwhich it is based were collected when I was on the staff firstof the University of Sheffield, then of the University ofBirmingham; but most of the actual writing has been done inManchester.A generation ago writers on modern economic historyfound their principal quarry in blue-books. ParliamentaryJournals, and other Government records. Hence arose notonly an over-estimate of the part played by the State ineconomic development, but also, perhaps, an unduly gloomyview of former industrial society; for it is the Pathology,rather than the Physiology, of social life that forms the subjectof commissions of enquiry, of Home Office reports, and ofparliamentary debates. Within the last few years a smallgroup of scholars has attempted to re-write the economichistory of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, usingas a basis the surviving records of business undertakings.The University of Manchester already possesses the completedocuments of four such concerns, and it is hoped thatproprietors of long-established businesses will add to thecollection. By so doing they will help to a truer view of thepast, and therefore to a clearer understanding of the present.They need have no misgivings concerning publicity. Housesthat have stood the test of a century were not built, shamefully,on sand: their foundations will bear scrutiny.The writer was not so fortunate as to find his materialhoused and catalogued in the archives of a single institution;and many, often hasty, visits had to be made to libraries andironworks in various parts of the country. It has not been^rPOiiovi Prefacethought necessary to print a complete bibUography, but itmay be as well to set forth here the principal manuscriptsources used in the preparation of this work.Boulton and Watt CollectionMunicipal Reference Library,Birmingham.Coalbrookdale MSS.The Coalbrookdale Co.
Ltd., Shrop-shire.Law Book of the Crowley IronworksBritish Museum.Horsehay MSS.The Horsehay Co. Ltd., Shropshire.Huntsman MSS.Messrs. Huntsman Ltd., Sheffield.Minutes of the Meetings of IronmastersJackson Collec-tion, Municipal Reference Library, Sheffield.Thorncliffe MSS.Messrs. Newton, Chambers & Co. Ltd.,Chapeltown.To the custodians of these records my gratitude is due:to Mr. Malcolm and Mr.
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Rich of Coalbrookdale,Mr. Simpson and Mr.
Bayley of Horsehay,Mr. Huntsman and Mr. Patrickson ofSheffield, and Mr. Newton Drew of Ecclesfield. Especiallyam I indebted to Mr. Bayley and Mr. Drew: to the formerfor his generous hospitality on several occasions, as well asfor a photograph of his engraving of the CoalbrookdaleWorks; to the latter for permitting me to publish the profitsof his firm during its early years, and for supplying theblocks of the portrait of his ancestor, George Newton, and ofthe Thorncliffe Ironworks.Mr.
William Darby, of Birmingham, has supplied muchinformation relative to his family, and has helped in theconstruction of the pedigree on p. PhillipsBedson of Manchester has lent me the block of his portrait ofHenry Cort, prepared for the Journal of the Iron and SteelWire Manufacturers' Association, to the Assistant Secretaryof which, Mr. Isgar, my thanks are also due. TheTown Clerk of Wolverhampton has kindly allowed me tophotograph the portrait of John Wilkinson which hangs inthe Town Hall; and the Museum and Art Gallery Committeeof Birmingham has granted me permission to reproduce thePreface viifine portraits of Matthew Boulton and James Watt in theCity Collection. I have also to acknowledge the courtesy ofthe Editors of the Economic Journal in giving me leave toreprint, with additions, the greater part of an article on EarlyPrice Associations in the British Iron Industry, whichappeared in Volume XXX of the Journal.Some critic may feel that this volume is concerned withthe ironworks of South Yorkshire and the Midlands, to theexclusion of those of other areas. I am conscious that theaccount of the progress of the industry in South Wales, inparticular, is inadequate; but, in justification, it may bepleaded that the longest strides were taken here at a periodsomewhat later than that considered in this book.
The defectwould have been greater but for the kindness of Sir FrederickMills, Bt., who not only read through my manuscript, butsent me copies of some twenty documents selected from therecords of the Ebbw Vale Company (referred to in the text asEbbw Vale MSS.).The reader will join me in gratitude to Professor H. Davis, who read several chapters and made detailedsuggestions leading to a reduction in the number of footnotes,without, it is hoped, rendering the book of less service to anyfuture investigator. Miss Lucy Ashton, has givengreat help with the proofs, and I also owe much to the guidingand restraining hand of the Secretary of the University Press,Mr. McKechnie.One other debt remains. My colleagues, Professor GeorgeUnwin and Professor G.
Daniels, have both read throughthe manuscript and have given me the benefit of their ripejudgment. With both I have the good fortune to be in dailycontact: I trust that their enthusiastic scholarship may' nothave failed to leave some mark upon my pages.It may not be superfluous to mention that the chronologicallimits of this essay are set at 1700 and 181 5. In Chapter I anattempt is made to sketch the growth of the industry in earlierperiods, and in some of the later chapters the story is continuedinto the 'twenties of the nineteenth century. Throughout itis the production of iron and steel, and not the manufactureviii Prefaceof these materials into tools, machinery, and weapons, that isconsidered. The records of Peter Stubs of Warrington,recently deposited with the University of Manchester, are avaluable source of information as to the metal trades of WestLancashire during the same period; and these will form thesubject of a separate study in the not remote future.T.
ASHTON.The University of Manchester,une ig2^.CONTENTS.PAGEPreface.-.-vCHAP.I. The Charcoal-Iron Industry in England.i. Early Times.- iii. The Eighteenth Century -13II. The Discoveries of Abraham Darby and Benja-min Huntsman.i. The Discovery of Smelting with Coke - 24ii. The New Ironworks -38iii.
Benjamin Huntsman and Cast Steel - 54III. The Relations between James Watt, MatthewBoulton and the Wilkinsons.i. The Invention of the Steam-Engine - 60ii. Steam-Power and the Iron Industry - 69iii. The Quarrel between the Engineers andthe Ironmaster -75IV. The Inventions of Henry Cort.i. Puddling and Rolling -87ii.
Expansion of the Iron Industry -95V. Overseas Competition and Commercial Policy - 104VI. The Iron Industry in Peace and War.i. The Wars of the Eighteenth Century - 128ii. The French Wars, 179318 15 -142iii. The Affairs of Messrs. Newton, Cham-bers & Co.- 156VII.
Combinations of Capitalists.i. Political Activities -162ii. Industrial Activities -i77X ContentsCHAP.
The Ironworkers.i. Wages and Conditions of Labour -i86ii. Mobility of Labour. The Ironmasters.- 209Appendices.A. The Method of Producing Iron at the end of theSeventeenth Century - 233B.
Some Statistics of the Supplies of Iron in theEarly Eighteenth Century - -. The Marketing of Charcoal Iron - -. Copies of Minutes of Meetings of Ironmasters - 247E.
A Letter from Abiah Darby- 249LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.The Iron Forge FrontispiecePAGECoalbrookdale, from an early engraving - facing page 26James Watt - 62Matthew Boulton 84Henry Cort 100John Wilkinson -136The Thorncliffe Ironworks, from a Woodcut -158George Newton -224Map of the Principal Iron Centres -on 266CHAPTER 1.The Charcoal-Iron Industry in England.' A land whose stones are iron, and outof whose hills thou mayest dig brass.' Deuteronomy, viii, 9.I.A COMPARISON of any one of the textile industries today withthat of six hundred, two hundred, or even one hundred yearsago would abound in striking contrasts; and one of the mostfascinating pursuits of the economic historian has been totrace the process by which these industries, formerly mouldedto a craft or domestic system, have assumed their modernform. Researches in this field have been so fruitful andconvincing that there has been a tendency to generalise theresults, and to assume that gild, domestic, and factory systemsare categories applicable to the economic sphere as a wholeinevitable stages in the march of all industries. It may notbe out of place, therefore, to begin a study of the developmentof iron production by emphasising that in this industry nosuch essential transformation hajS 'taken place: from theearliest period of which we have exact information ironmaking in this country has been conducted on capitalisticlinescapitalistic not only in that the workers are dependentupon an employer for their raw material and market, butalso in that they are brought together in a '. works,' arepaid wages, and perform their duties under conditions notdissimilar to those of almost any large industry of moderntimes.
The scale of operations has increased enormously; thesapling has become an oak, deep-rooted and widespread;technique has been revolutionised. But in structure andorganisation there is no fundamental change.The history of iron production is thus a record of thegrowth of the business unit, the discovery of new sources4 Iron in the Industrial Revolutionthe form of barrels, they contained an inner chamber of castiron.^ It would thus appear possible that it was not Prussiaas has been claimedbut Sussex that saw the birth and earlydevelopment of the art of casting, and that this took placebefore 1500, the approximate date usually assigned to it.
Thequestion will probably never be settled, for it appears likelythat the blast-furnace was not the result of a sudden act ofcreation, but of a slow evolution, the stages of which can beinferred only by observation xof processes in metallurgicallybackward areas at later periods! ' The Catalan Hearth,' it issaid, developed into the ' O^und Furnace 'in which abloom of malleable iron was madeand this in turn evolvedinto the ' Stiickofen,' in which either the pasty malleable ironor the freely flowing cast iron, or both intermixed, could beproduced at will.
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