AUTHOR OF "THE RAILWAYS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM STATISTICALLY "Audire est operæ pretium." NEW EDITION. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 1854. PREFACE. THE writer was originally induced to collect facts relating to the History of the Iron Trade in the year 1826, when the quantity made in this country amounted to about 600,000 tons, in consequence of reading a petition to the Houses of Parliament in 1750 against a Bill for encouraging the Importation of Iron from our American Colonies. It was from "the tanners of leather in and about the town of Sheffield in Yorkshire, representing that if the Bill should pass, the English iron would be undersold; consequently a great number of furnaces and forges would be discontinued; in that case the woods used for fuel would stand uncut, and the tanners be deprived of oak bark sufficient for the continuance and support of their occupation." The extraordinary change from such a state of alarm on the part of the tanners, when the make of iron was about 17,000 tons, appeared a subject well worthy of consideration, taking into account the magnitude of the advantage to this country, in the abundant supply of this most valuable material, applicable to nearly all public and private uses; and the trade, therefore, not only of this but of other countries was considered, and continued to 1840, when the make had increased to about 1,300,000 tons per annum, a result which, by comparison, appeared enormous. Since that time other engagements have withdrawn the Author's attention from the iron trade, at least so far as any continuation of the History was concerned; and a period has elapsed during which the make has further increased to about 2,700,000 tons! almost sinking into insignificance the make of 1840. This did certainly appear a matter of sufficient importance to justify an inquiry, -especially considering the striking events of the period which had elapsed,-as to the causes by which this enormous increase has been encouraged; whether to the advantage of individuals as well as of the country, and whether the supply is likely to be supported, or, on the contrary, whether reckless make has not brought as to a position from which, unless mineral fields, at present unknown, come into operation, with similar advantages to the black band ironstone of Scotland, we must retrograde, or as Mrs. Malaprop might say, "begin to make our progress backwards," and reduce the manufacture to somewhat more moderate limits. There is no subject more important to the country than the success of the iron trade; and whatever cause may tend to affect a position to which we have once attained, it cannot but be a matter of general in terest. Liverpool, Sept. 1854. |