ABSTRACT
Tin shared in the upheaval that occurred in all non-ferrous metals industries as new needs and producers emerged in response to the imperatives of industrial capitalism. However, several features distinguish the way in which new forms of competition affected the position of tin in the period from the end of the Napoleonic wars to the end of World War I. Although many important new uses were introduced, consumption grew much more slowly than in other base metals.1 Nonetheless, these new uses supported a major increase in price, illustrated in Figure 3.1, which restored tin to the role occupied during the Bronze Age, as the most valuable of the base metals. While changes in the pattern of both consumption and production made tin the most dependent on the operation of the international market, extraction under the direct control of capitalist corporations proceeded far more slowly. Even by the end of this period, tin remained a comparatively backward industry still shaped by its distinctive history.
