ABSTRACT
From 1870 to 1914, the Welsh economy had grown at a dizzying rate; from the 1920s, the image is almost of a film suddenly thrown into reverse, as the country entered a period less of slump than of deindustrialisation. Wales now paid the full price for its excessive reliance on coal, and thus on the permanence of the technologies based on coal. At the 1913 peak, the south Wales coalfield produced 56 million tons of coal, 70 per cent of which was directed to export. In the whole of Wales, mining and quarrying together accounted for over 270,000 men by 1921, or 30 per cent of the total employed. By 1929, Welsh coal production stood at 48 million tons, and it fell below 35 million by 1932. The coal industry suffered a series of disasters. In 1925 and 1926, the economy was hit by a series of problems – battles over tariffs and the gold standard, the over-valuation of sterling, the ending of the coal subsidy, industrial conflict. Coal was hard hit because of its reliance on export markets. Oil replaced coal in many types of industry, above all shipping, while the growth of electric power reduced demand.
