Welsh Journals

INDUSTRY BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. Incorporating a study of the Chartered Companies of the Society of Mines Royal and of Mineral and Battery Works. By William Rees. Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1968. Pp. 698, in two vols. 126s. Readers of these two volumes would be well advised to observe how the seemingly far-ranging title is qualified in the Foreword. 'Industry' here denotes certain mining and metal industries only, in the particular region of 'the western half of southern Britain, viz., in Wales and its neighbours, the West Midlands, the West Country and Ireland'. Geologically and economically, this makes sense, though it may not fit the conventional pigeon-holes of the historians. Further, in view of the study by J. U. Nef, Dr. Rees has confined his section on coal-mining to 'aspects of special interest to Wales'. Cornish tin and Mendip lead receive no more than marginal treatment, in the latter case doubtless because of the book by J. W. Gough. Within these chosen limitations we need not quarrel. What remains is a detailed account of the development of heavy industry in south Wales, with some reference to other portions of the British Isles with which it had economic links or affinities, chiefly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; in addition, there is an investigation of the origins and history of the Company of Mines Royal and the Society of Mineral and Battery Works, which involves Dr. Rees in a foray as far afield as the Lake District. Since Dr. Rees bases his text throughout on original sources, the range of topics is certainly enough for two volumes, even if they do not contain quite what the title at first glance might suggest. Dr. Rees makes no bones about stating his approach- it is historical and evolutionary, examined as it were from the standpoint of those engaged in the industry rather than from the more sophisticated view- point of another day'. This raises some nice points about the nature of the task of the historian and might tempt us to put him in the same bracket, mutatis mutandis, as the political historian of bygone times, who sought to elucidate the achievements of statesmen by commenting on their memoirs and dispatches and observing how far in performance they achieved or fell short of their aims. However, Dr. Rees's tactic has clearly helped him to relate the centres of industry to the configurations of geology, with the aid of the valuable and original maps which are a feature of his work. He has also been enabled to concentrate much attention upon the development of mining and smelting techniques, which are described with the help of well-chosen prints from Agricola's De Metallica and other sources. After a lucid account of the contribution of German and French engineers to mining and metallurgy in England, he follows the quest of timber for smelting-and with it the sites of ironworks-from the Weald to south Wales and across the sea to Ireland. Here, for a period in the early seventeenth century, the manufacture of iron seemed to be taking root, with the aid of the formidable and predatory Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork. Dr. Rees has managed to piece together the intricate story