ABSTRACT
From the 1780s to the mid-1980s the main economic role of Wales within the UK system was as a supplier of agricultural and heavy industrial inputs, especially coal and steel. Having been a cradle of the Industrial Revolution, beginning with iron production in the 1780s, Wales experienced a lengthy period of restructuring from the early post-war years until the effective ending of major coal production following the defeat of the miners in the 1984-5 national strike.
