ABSTRACT
The production and working of metals, which had been much less considerable as an industry than the textile group at Victoria’s accession, had overtaken it at the beginning of the twentieth century 1 . It is true that metals made up a very varied collection of industries, and we shall concentrate here on two strategic branches: first, iron and steel, later engineering, but it must be mentioned that, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, England was a large producer of copper, tin (mined in Devon and Cornwall) 2 Their production increased up to mid-century and even beyond, but then diminished or even ceased, owing to the exhaustion of deposits and the competition from abroad at lower prices.
