Supremacy in Iron, 1815–40

The ending of war in 1815, as in earlier periods, brought a slump: in the case of iron Britain suddenly found itself with excess capacity. Despite attempts by regional groupings of ironmasters to secure agreements to maintain values, prices fell as firms competed for dwindling orders.1 In the Midlands, for example, pig iron for the forge had sold at £6 a ton in 1814, but fell to £3.75 in 1816 and remained at £5 or below for seven of the nine years after 1814.2 Some ironworks closed while others were sold at a fraction of their original worth. In the trough of the depression, 1816, William Hood, the Dowlais Iron Co.’s London agent, wrote to Josiah Guest that3 the demand you have had is from speculations to America, which being now completely glutted with iron and British goods, the demand will cease. From Liverpool alone there is 15 million of property exported, which will not be got back for some years and you will find no small distress will be prevailing in the spring when merchants are expecting remittance. There is no channel for a large consumption of iron in the spring but to America, the East India demand being now nearly over for this season, and France and others on the Continent [exhausted by war] have not the means to purchase large quantities. Of foreign iron there has been a large quantity of Sweeds exported to India, in consequence of the bad quality of the British that [has] been exported for some years and I think that the British iron will run a great risk of losing that market.