ABSTRACT
The growing importance of manufacturing and mining in relation to the rest of the economy can be quickly gauged by observing the growth in their share of national income, from about 20 per cent in the mid-eighteenth century to about 35 per cent by 1830. Another industry whose basic organisation and techniques did not change radically was coal mining. In 1783, Henry Cort patented his better-known puddling technique, which used the reverberatory furnace already developed for non-ferrous metal smelting. Apart from the established deep-mining areas of the North East, mining also developed rapidly in this period in the West of Scotland, where the coal was particularly suitable for iron production, and in South Wales, Lancashire and the West Midlands. The development of the steam engine improved pumping and so enabled mines to be dug much deeper. 'Hard-rock' mining, mining for iron and for non-ferrous metals like tin, lead and copper, has attracted less attention but was also important.
