Welsh Journals

THE BEGINNINGS OF AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POLICY IN MID-WALES: THE MID-WALES INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION, 1957-1974 MID-WALES-the area covered by the former counties of Merioneth, Cardigan, Montgomery, Radnor and Brecon-experienced a net loss of population for over a hundred years. In 1871, the population peaked at 315,724; by 1976 it had fallen to 190,200, a decline of 39.8 per cent in 105 years. I The loss of population in the nineteenth century was largely the result of the decline in the area's traditional industries, such as the woollen, craft, shipbuilding and agricultural industries, and copper and lead mining.2 This decline was the result of vigorous national and international competition, due in particular to the coming of railways and steamships which integrated mid- Wales in the world economy. They also widened the number of accessible destinations to the area's out-migrants. The report of the Welsh Land Enquiry Committee in 1914 attributed population decline in mid-Wales to the reduced demand for agricultural labour brought about by the conversion of arable land to pasture, the greater use of horses and agricultural machinery and 'the superior attractions of town life'.3 The movement of population was mainly to the higher wages and better job opportunities of the Welsh coalfields and the colonies. For females, migration to domestic service in urban areas was often the only opportunity of employment. In some areas, however, out-migration occurred in spite of the existence of a 'serious deficiency' of local farm labour and was largely due to poor housing conditions, while many of the area's farmers were reluctant to pay market rates to workers.4 Out-migration from the area continued in the inter-war years. To a large extent, this was due to a further fall in the labour requirements of agriculture and the decline in Merioneth's slate industry.5 The contraction of the slate industry was due to a fall in the demand for slates associated with the increased use of cheaper roofing tiles, the development of alternative roofing 'Census of Population, 1861-1971: Welsh Population Estimates (Cardiff, 1976). 2J. E. C. Jenkins, 'Population in Central Wales: Changes in Number and Distribution, 1801-1931' (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of London, 1940); V. C. Davies, 'Some Geographical Aspects of the Depopulation of Rural Wales Since 1841' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1955). 'The Welsh Land Enquiry Committee, Welsh Land (London, 1914), p. 173; see also, D. W. Howell, Land and People in Nineteenth Century Wales (London, 1977). 4The Welsh Land Enquiry Committee, p. 174. 'A. W. Ashby and I. L. Evans, The Agriculture of Wales and Monmouthshire (Cardiff, 1944), p. 60.