194 On the Jffiniths of 



comparable to that we daily manufacture in great quantities 

 from foreign iron. 



Here we remain at an Immense distance behind ; and 

 while our manufacture of iron goods exceeds the collective 

 exertions of all Europe, we humbly feel our dependence , 

 upon two foreign markets for the supply of that steel iron, 

 W'ithout which the beauty, the utility, and extent of our 

 hardware manufactures would be essentially injured and 

 abridged. 



The policy of the foreign holders of this article commu- 

 nicates many undue advantages to the favourite few to whom 

 the steel iron is consigned in this country. The rapid pro- 

 gressive rise in value of this iron for ten years past, has al- 

 ready nearly doubled the price of steel to the workman, and 

 given the trade in general a melancholv foretaste of the evils 

 of dependence and monopoly *. This is not all ; the im- 

 porters of steel iron avail themselves of their advantageous 

 connection, and generally annex, as a condition of pur- 

 chasing, that the steel manufacturer shall buy a proportion 

 of Inferior or common marks. This he is frequently obliged 

 to do, and take his chance of the market in disposing 

 either of all or of part of this obligatory purchase. The con- 

 sequences arc obvious; only large capitalists can in general 

 enter the trade, and these most naturally will cover their 

 probable risk of loss upon the sale of a superfluous stock 

 of bar iron by an additional tonnage upon the price of blis- 

 tered and manufactured steel. 



There are few but are convinced that there exists some 

 material difference betwixt us, the Swedes, and Russians, in 

 the form or niinutice of our processes for making bar iron 

 respectively. In the nature of our fuel, or in the construc- 

 tion of our ores. If the most faithful imitation of the fo- 

 reign processes for the making of bar iron has completely 

 failed In forming quality, then the difference must lay be- 

 twixt the nature of pit coal fuel and that of wood ; or the 

 fossil construction and combination of an endless variety 

 of secondary ores, contrasted with the richer, the magnetic, 

 and more metallic ores of the Swedish and Siberian mines. 



If the analysis of pit coal furnish us with data sufliclent 



* It was reported some years ago, that the mine of Danamora in Swe- 

 den, from the ore of which 4 to 5000 tons of stt-el iron of the best marks 

 are yearly made, had been inundated by the overflowing or bursting of a 

 neighbouring lake. The holders of iron in this cociury immediately 

 speculated upmi an unheard-of rise in the price of this article, which 

 ■was fortunately soon after counteracted by a certsinty of the mischief not 

 being nearly so extensive as was first appiehtnded. 



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