Iron in the Making. Dowlais Iron Company letters, 1782-1860

Notes:

Provides transcriptions / extracts from c650 letters received by the Dowlais Company [almost all the out letters have not survived] between 1782-1860, selected from a total of 563,000 letters. Structured in seven parts: 1] 'The ironmasters' - price, wage and output agreements; 2] 'Masters and men' - recruitments, dismissals, industrial action, trade unions, blacklisting, welfare, health, etc; 3] 'The business' - finance, organisation, purchase of iron ore; 4] 'Markets and sales' - trends, agents' reports, orders, iron quality; 5] 'Transport and communications' - roads tramroads, Glamorganshire Canal', iron boats, harbours, Taff Vale Railway', etc; 6] 'Technical' - rails for tramways, machinery for works, patents, production methods; 7] 'Politics' - Napoleonic Wars, Chartism, bills and acts, local politics. Correspondents include family, agents, competitors, politicians, etc. Has family trees descending from John Guest, c1721-87, and from Thomas Lewis, 1699-1764, of Llanishen