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was actively employed in the concern; when they protested, he dismissed his words as a joke and a gentle reminder of his generous affection for them. Richard was so humiliated by the hard truth thus 'kindly' thrown in his face that he resigned from his sleeping partnership in George Yard and was with difficulty induced to return. George also threatened to resign over his father's policy of holding during the 1829 depression, when the father complacently reminded his sons that his capital was carrying the concerns over all crises. To this George retorted that, if the Lon- don House had its way, they would be without 20,000 tons of unwanted iron and richer by £ 50,000 in the bank. All three brothers were made very sore by con- tinual repetition of the remark that there were too many in the London firm, and by reminders that their capital holdings were too small for men who had made so much out of its success. Nevertheless, William Crawshay genuinely loved his sons, and in particular his son, William. He saw very clearly the great gulf in ability and character be- tween William and the other men, and he was very just in his estimate of the brilliant exertions of the former at Cyfarthfa. He recognised that William was almost his counterpart and, although there were times when they were afraid to meet because a violent quarrel would have been the outcome, father and son shared a mutual admiration and affection. In his last year of life, as dropsy and other afflictions crowded fast upon him, he left the conduct of his two concerns almost entirely to his favoured son's direction. At his death, in fulfilment of his promise, he left to William the absolute proprietorship of Cyfarthfa and Hirwaun Ironworks and his holdings in the Glamorganshire Canal, and in London ensured that his son should be second to none in the firm of Richard and William Crawshay & Company. The first William Crawshay died at Stoke Newington some twenty years after his premature burial by Wilkins, on 11 August 1834. At the time of his death his works sent down the Glamorganshire Canal to Cardiff over 37,000 tons of iron per annum, against the 35,000 tons of the Dowlais Iron Co., his nearest rivals, and the mere 12,000 each of the Penydarran Company and the Hills of Plymouth Works. When he had inherited his father's share, the output of the works was, according to Wilkins, only 10,000 tons. At times in his career he had carried in his warehouses at Cardiff and in London double the entire year's output of the firm of Crawshay and Hall, and this for speculative holding; he had borne a loss of £ 40,000 to ensure more than normal profits at the turn of the market; and up to his seventieth year he had exercised rigorous personal control over two difficult enterprises and five fractious partners under conditions which would have broken a lesser man. He died, as he wanted to die, the largest individual ironmaster in the world. NOTE The above brief study of the policy of the first William Crawshay necessarily omits reference to much of importance in the social and economic history of Merthyr. We are concerned with external policy rather than with the internal events of Cyfarthfa and Hirwaun works and their environs. The Cyfarthfa papers