The Iron Industry

In 1810, at the height of the industry’s expansion during the war with France, the ironmasters of Great Britain produced about 400,000 tons of pig from some 220 blast furnaces. At the peak of the boom of the early 1870s more than 6·5 million tons was produced from about 700 furnaces. These figures alone indicate the magnitude of the technological and economic changes experienced by one of the leading sectors of manufacturing industry during the first three quarters of the nineteenth century. ¹