B3 



STEELYARD. 



MERCHANTS OF THE. 



sort of eruption of slag. Flame* again apparel; for tome <>f the 

 oxygen formed an oxide with come of the iron, and acted an a kind of 

 solvent for Hulphur and earthy matters. Tlie pig iron lost about 

 13 per cent, of iu weight during this process. Tin- ticli slag thrown 

 <>ut might bo afterward* treated with carbon gases, and mule to \i.-U 

 more iron. When the flame* and (park* had viibnidi.il, a plugged 

 hole wai opened, and the metal poured into an ingot-mould, without 

 leaving any cinder or oxid.-. '11..- process took little more than half an 

 hour, and no fuel was used. While in the cylinder, the mvtal was nut 

 a mere party man, it wan a boiling fiery fluid. At a certain stage, the 

 iron became crude steel. By continuing the boil, more carbon was 

 driven out, and purer steel resulted. In short, any medium between 

 the softest iron and the hardest steel might be produced by varying 

 the duration of the process. One kind, called by Mr. Bessemer xmi- 

 Kteel, is more elastic, harder, and stronger than bar-iron, but not so 

 hard and fine as steel ; it ia useful for light and strong purposes; it U 

 more difficult to roll than iron, but is stronger and more durable, and 

 U therefore considered to be cheaper in the end. 



In the three yean next following this announcement of Mr. Bessemer's 

 imvmi.'ii. the comments took the whole range between the highest 

 praise and the most marked disapproval. The inventor and his friends 

 claimed for the novelty a diminution of labour, time, and cost ; the 

 production of a metal more homogeneous than by the common method ; 

 no residue of wasteful slag; and the power of producing ingots of any 

 weight from one to seven or more cwts. The Llanelly Tin-Plate Works 

 supplied Mr. Bessemer with gome pig-iron such as they used for producing 

 the beet sheet-iron : he converted it into a soft ingot, which was wrought 

 at a white heat into a slab by the force of a steam-hammer, and then 

 rolled into very good sheet-iron for tin-plate. Mr. Adams stated that 

 an amateur might easily make a bit of steel, by melting 4 ozs. of cast- 

 iron in a crucible, pouring it into the bowl of a large tobacco-pipe, and 

 using the stem as a blow-pipe. On the other hand, most of the manu- 

 facturers found fault with the Bessemer process. Some of them said 

 that, although the process removes the carbon and silicon more com- 

 pletely than the ordinary method, and the sulphur about as well, it 

 leaves the phosphorus untouched, which they regarded as a fatal blot. 

 Others made trial of the process, and declared the iron or steel 

 produced to be bad. In 1859, after patenting several modifica- 

 tions of his plan, Mr. Bessemer described his process, in a some- 

 what altered form, before the Institute of Civil Engineers. He had 

 been endeavouring to get rid more completely of the sulphur and 

 phosphorus. He used Swedish iron instead of English for the best 

 steel, poured the molten metal into cold water instead of into a large 

 mould, re-melted it, and finally poured it into small moulds. Other 

 changes had been made in the apparatus and the process. Some of 

 the ingots exhibited possessed wonderful tensile power. A bar 3 inches 

 square was bent round until the outer curve was lengthened from 12 

 to 16] inches, and the inner lessened from 12 to 7 j inches, cold, and 

 without a flaw. Four iron rods, 1J inches diameter, were twisted cold 

 into a cable; the rods stretched one foot in four during the process, and 

 thinned out in inverse proportion. A steel bar, 2 inches square, was 

 twisted cold into a spiral at an angle of 45. A round steel bar was 

 hammered cold into the form of a horse-shoe. 



At the present time, the Bessemer process is under probation. 

 Works have been erected at Sheffield to put it in operation; and 

 similar establishments have been founded in several Continental states. 

 By this means the system will obtain that which alone can determine 

 its value a fair trial on a large scale. Persons of moderate views 

 believe that the semi-steel will become useful for railway purposes, as 

 being harder than bar-iron, and for marine engine-work, because it is 

 lighter than iron for equal strength. How far fine steel can be profit- 

 ably produced, without the converting process, is still a disputed 

 point. 



In 1853, Sheffield had 160 steel-converting furnaces, and 1495 cast- 

 steel " holes "about 1 G holes to a casting-furnace. Of the 20,000 to 

 40,000 tons of Swedish iron annually imported, nearly all goes to 

 Sheffield to be converted into steel. Including Russian and English 

 iron, it is supposed that about 50,000 tons are annually made into steel, 

 of which 30,000 tons are cast-steel. The value of this quantity is 

 roundly estimated at about 1,500,000/. yearly. 

 STKK1.VAKH. |\VI;I.;IIINC; MACIIINK.) " 

 STI.K1.YARD, MERCHANTS o| THE, a body of aliens who 

 enjoyed various commercial privileges hi England from an early period 

 to the middle of the 16th century. " The emperor's men," mentioned 

 in some ordinances of Ethelred II. (A.D. 978-1016) as trading to England, 

 the predecessors of the merchants of the Teutonic Guild. In 1220 

 the merchants of Cologne had a hall or factory in London, for the legal 

 possession of which they made an acknowledgment to the king. " It 

 seniua that this ( ; ildhall , by the association of the merchants of other cities 

 with those of Cologne, became in time the general factory and residence 

 if all the (innwin merchants in London, and was the same that wax 

 afterwards known by the name of the German G ildhall (" (lildhaUa 

 Teutmicorum"). (Macphcrson, 'Annals of Commerce,' i. 383.) In 

 Henry III. gave them permission to attend fairs in any part ol 

 England, and also to buy and sell in London, saving the liberties ol 

 the city ; and they were exempted from several customs and payments. 

 In the 15th century we find the House merchants engrossing the privi- 

 leges of the above ancient incorporation, Cologne being a member ol 



the League, and the whole of the German merchants resident in London 

 probably belonging to one or other of the Hanse towns. At least, after 

 1475, they had but one factory in London, which was the Steel-yard, 

 or Steel-house, as it was sometimes called, situate a little east of 

 Dowgate, between Thames Street and the river. The Thames-street 

 front was fortified with three portcullised gateways ; and the whole 

 was inclosed by strong walls, within which, more than once, and 

 especially on tie irruption of Wat Tyler's mob in 1381, the Hanse 

 merchants saved themselves, while the Flemings and other foreigners 

 fell victims to the national prejudice. In the interior was the great 

 hall, adorned with pictures by Hans Holbein, in which the corporation 

 In-Ill their councils and partook of their feasts. On the west side of 

 the hall was a garden, adorned with vines and rare fruit trees. The 

 Thames front was a quay, with all the conveniences then known for 

 embarking or disembarking goods. The remainder of the area was 

 occupied by lofty warehouses and streets of booths for the reception 

 and display of the necessaries and luxuries imported from the north, 

 south, and east, fine cloths, wines, silks, dried fruits, spices, with 

 h.-nip, tallow, furs, salt-fish, and iron. Strict order was preserved in 

 the building, whose gates were shut at nine in the evening ; and to the 

 corporation was entrusted the care and repair of Billingsgate ; every 

 master being under an obligation to provide harness for war, the same 

 as a native. The old building was destroyed in the fire of London in 

 1666. That which succeeded differed little from the other erections iu 

 its neighbourhood. The Steelyard was in the parish of Allhallows, 

 at which church the members attended, and which they embellished 

 with painted windows. After the fire of London, on the rebuilding of 

 the church, they contributed the carved oak screen which still sepa- 

 rates the choir from the nave. In 1673, the inconvenience of attend- 

 ing a service in a foreign language induced them to petition for one of 

 the abandoned churches, and that in Little Trinity Lane was granted 

 to them, which has thenceforward been used by the German residents 

 in London for divine service in their own tongue. In 1475, Edw. IV. 

 entered into a treaty with the Hanseatic League, by which the privi- 

 leges of the London factory were placed on a more secure foundation, 

 instead of being granted only for a short period, and being at times 

 curtailed, and even occasionally suspended. By way of settling former 

 disputes, it was thought worth while to pay them 10,000/., or rather to 

 remit customs duties on their goods to that amount. The king was to 

 appoint two or more judges to act without the ordinary legal formalities 

 in all civil and criminal cases between the Hanse merchants and English ; 

 and similar regulations were to be adopted in reference to English sub- 

 jects residing at the Hanse towns. The fee simple of the Steelyard 

 was conveyed by this treaty ; also the Steelyard at Boston, and a house 

 at Lynn. Under this treaty and their old charters, the Hanse merchants 

 of the Steelyard were enabled to monopolise certain branches of trade, 

 in which they were exempted from duties payable by other traders ; 

 and by their combination and capital, they were doubtless formidable 

 competitors in other branches of foreign trade; but though the activity 

 of foreigners might be tolerated while native capital was wanting, yet a 

 trade from which English merchants were virtually excluded could not 

 possibly be permanent. The industry and energy of the English trader 

 made him a formidable competitor. He not only, in spite of the 

 troubles of the wars of the Roses, exerted himself to supply domestic 

 wants, but he actually, as is noticed above, had pushed himself into 

 the traffic of the Baltic. In addition, the requirements of commerce 

 had introduced the use of larger vessels ; which could not well be 

 adopted by the Hanse merchants, as they could not come above 

 London Bridge. All things were working against the interests of the 

 Steelyard. 



In 1505 a rival interest was created, by a charter granted to the 

 Company of Merchant Adventurers for trading in woollen cloth to the 

 Netherlands. The merchants of the Steelyard were bound in heavy 

 penalties not to interfere with the trade of this new incorporation, 

 which soon became a powerful rival, not only to the German merchants, 

 but to the merchants of the staple. In 1551, various allegations of the 

 Merchant Adventurers, with the counter-statements of the merchants 

 of the Steelyard, were put into the hands of the solicitor-general and 

 the recorder of London, upon whose report the council came to a reso- 

 lution that the Steelyard merchants had forfeited their privileges, their 

 charters being contrary to the laws of the realm. The council reported 

 that no particular persons or towns being mentioned in these charters, 

 the corporation had extended their privileges to whomsoever they 

 pleased ; that English subjects had not enjoyed reciprocity of privileges 

 in the Hanseatic towns ; that their English trade was no longer confined 

 to the Hanse towns ; that they had engrossed almost the entire trade 

 carried on by foreigners in the kingdom ; lastly, that they had reduced 

 the price of wool, and also of corn by their importations of foreign 

 grain. The articles which they imported, besides grain, are stated to 

 have been cordage and other naval stores, flax and hemp, linen, cloth, 

 and steel. The English Merchant Adventurers flourished on the ruin 

 of the older incorporation, which however continued to linger until 

 1597, when the Emperor Rudolph having ordered the factories of the 

 English Merchant Adventurers in Germany to be shut up, Queen 

 Elizabeth directed the Lord Mayor of London to close the house occupied 

 by the merchants of the Steelyard. The buildings and site of the 

 Steelyard, however, remained in possession of the towns of Hamburg, 

 Bremen, and Liibcck, as representatives of the old Hanse corporation, 



