War and Expansion at Dowlais, 1793–1815

War in the eighteenth century had in general been a driving force for the creation and expansion of ironworks, and the period 1793–1815 was no exception. Initially, however, war with Revolutionary France had the opposite effect, contributing as it did to the commercial crisis of 1793 which brought an end to the wave of investment that had begun in the early 1780s.1 For the next three years the price of iron remained fairly steady, increased supply (the product of a decade’s growth) being able to cope with rising demand. Then, in 1796, the price of imported iron rose by about 30 per cent2 — the result of higher customs duties and the interruptions to trade with the Baltic nations caused by the war at sea3 — which in a climate of swelling orders ensured huge profits for British ironmasters. Successive increases, during 1797 and 1798, in the duty on foreign bar iron were deliberately designed to encourage the home industry. The tariff on imported bar iron had been £2.81 per ton in the period 1782–95 but rapidly mounted to £6.49 by 1813 and had the effect of pricing the Swedish and Russian product out of the UK market.4 Hence one ironmaster declared in 1798 that no fewer than twenty one blast furnaces had been constructed since 1796 and that a further nineteen were nearing completion.5 In Glamorgan alone nine blast furnaces were built between 1796 and 1800, five new ironworks being established in South Wales in 1799–1802.6